The city of Bakhmut in the central part of Donbass has been a hot spring along the entire Ukrainian front line for several weeks. Reports of heavy fighting and the discovery of cases of disappearance due to a sudden release, which is especially noticeable against the background of the relative calm in other areas, which were discovered after the retreat of Russian troops on the left bank. Why is Russia so determined to capture Bakhmut?

“South of Bakhmut, Russian troops are attacking Ozaryanovka and Andreevka. Thus, they take a detour into the pincers of the garrison of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kurdyumovka and cut the railway line in this area. The Wagner PMCs were attacking Kleshcheevka. ” wrote the other day, the military commander of the Russian telegram channel WarGonzo Semyon Pegov.

Denis Pushilin, the leader of the self-proclaimed DPR, also announced on Monday that Russian troops are surrounded by Artemovsk (the former name of Bakhmut).

Ukrainian sources also write about the battles at the Bakhmut implementation, but they claim that all cases of reflection detection.

“Near Bakhmut, everything is littered with the bodies of the enemy, the invaders continue to threaten the assault, the leadership of the Russian Federation is driving mobilized and convicts to the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” – reported Ukrainian edition of UNIAN.

What is happening in the Bakhmut area? Why is the Russian army so persistent in capturing this city? Why, despite heavy losses, does it not abandon the tactics of frontal assaults on heavily fortified Ukrainian positions?

Bakhmut is a medium-sized city in the north of the Donetsk region by Donbass standards and an important transport hub. Roads to Lisichansk and Severodonetsk, Seversk, Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Konstantinovka, Gorlovka and Lugansk pass through it. It became front-line in May 2022, when Ukrainian troops retreated from Popasna, while Russian troops set their sights on Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.

At the same time, regular shelling of Bakhmut is observed. Most of the 70 thousand inhabitants fled, mostly remained old. There is no water and electricity in the city, many buildings are destroyed.

At the beginning of the summer, the Russian army managed to take Severodonetsk and Lisichansk, but on the outskirts of Bakhmut the offensive bogged down that even the multiple superiority in the artillery of the Russian army did not give anything.

Now the situation at the front has changed – the grouping in Izyum, which, according to the plan of Russia, was supposed to break through towards the advancing from the side of the Popasnaya part, retreated and holds the defense at the line of Svatovo – Kremennaya, the territory east and southeast of Kharkov, clearing, covering the attack of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk is not. However, the attacks on Bakhmut have not stopped, and have even intensified in recent weeks.

Russian sources report on the success of the Russian army on the Bakhmut protocol, in particular, on the abduction of several villages south of the city. individual Russian military and the disappearance of the collapse of the front and the imminent encirclement of the Ukrainian group.

Analytics The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believes that Russia is exaggerating its achievements – nothing foreshadows the imminent encirclement of Bakhmut.

Even if high forces did manage to take control of the settlements south of Bakhmut, these successes do not reach high limits – to Seversk and Konstantinovka, which are wide Ukrainian land routes. The position regarding the employment of the Russian side is aimed directly at the development of Ukrainian defensive structures in Bakhmut and its western and northern satellite villages, writes ISW.

But do not underestimate the danger of gnawing through Ukrainian defenses south of Bakhmut. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are sending reinforcements there, and quite large ones.

At different levels of the Russian military-political machine, motivation can be different. The political leadership and propaganda media need a positive information picture. Russian troops have not achieved success on the Ukrainian front for a long time, both on the front line and in the rear. The capture of Bakhmut was about to raise the morale of the export of continuing the war.

For the Russian military team, Bakhmut is of serious interest. If it is occupied by a dangerous threat to supply the right flank of the Ukrainian detachments besieging the Kremennaya area and planning an attack on Lisichansk and Severodonetsk. In addition, the capture of Bakhmut would open up a military field for maneuver and force the Armed Forces of Ukraine to concentrate their forces on arranging new defensive lines – this is not an easy task in winter conditions.

Not important is the desire of the Russian command to create an initiative in this sector of the front and prevent the Armed Forces of Ukraine from releasing reserves for the development of other areas – in the south of Zaporozhye and the north of the Luhansk region.

For officers and soldiers who are of great importance in the fighting in the Bakhmut region, the prospect of taking the city means some kind of intermediate result, promising, if not the end of hostilities, then some kind of pause. Someone is hoping to get behind the successful lift and get over the rear, except for blood, colds and dirt. Someone is counting on a withdrawal for re-formation and vacation. Someone is going to process the structure in stock at the expiration of the contract or as events unfold.

In addition to all this, in the desire of the Russians to capture Bakhmut, there may also be a prosaic reason – even in a ruined city it is better to spend the winter than in the cops.

By the beginning of the Russian Invasion in Ukraine on February 24, opponents of high danger and reliable lines of supply along the entire line of confrontation in the Donbass, formed since the temporary conflict of 2014. With the detention side of the defense are engaged in the most dangerous, the detention of the unit’s combat experience.

The Russian army is being criticized for its practice of frontal attacks on Ukrainian fortified areas that are working out casualties for the attackers.

“The attempts of the Russians to storm Bakhmut in the forehead, in my opinion, are sheer madness. Yesterday a video was published showing about 25-30 dead Russians on the outskirts of Bakhmut. trenches without any mechanized support,” thinks military analyst Def Mon.

Changes in the actions of Russian troops in the Bakhmut sector are still visible.

Participants in the hostilities with the Ukrainian side say that near Bakhmut, the Russians began to use the tactics of continuous attacks and diseases, about 10 people each, while the level among the attackers is rising, probably not bothering the Russian command.

At the same time, the Russian military reports that Russian artillery crews are of great importance for monitoring the time from the moment of transmission of target designation to the opening of fire.

“Now the special forces groups working in the LBS transmit the coordinates of the targets directly to the surface of the Earth. And the artillery strikes at them within two minutes. And then there is an online adjustment. That is, all the intermediate stages of the reports were simply crossed out. , certainly”, – writes military commander Alexander Kots.

The Russian army still has a significant amount of superiority in the processing of artillery barrels. Oleksii Arestovich, Advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine evaluates the ratio of artillery near Bakhmut as one to nine in the use of the Russian army. So far, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been able to neutralize this advantage due to higher intensity and improved target designation – largely due to the presence of a large number of reconnaissance UAVs.

In the Russian army from the very beginning of the operational operation to disclose information about problems with drones. But near Bakhmut there are occupied units of Prigozhin’s “PMC Wagner”, in large numbers occupied by the agreements of the Russian colonies. It is possible that such poorly trained soldiers are used to open the location of the firing points of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in order to quickly detain artillery forces.

If so, then perhaps the Ukrainian army needs to change its tactics.