A key city for the Russians? Fighting is currently taking place in Bakhmout in eastern Ukraine, still under Ukrainian control. Moscow forces on Wednesday claimed the capture of three new towns in the surrounding area. But why do the Russians want to take over this particular city?
An “extremely violent” trench warfare
On a front of about 40 km, the region is today the main battlefield between Ukraine and Russia. The town of Bakhmout has been attacked by Moscow forces since this summer without success, despite the regular capture of small towns near the town by the Russians.
In the act a trench warfare takes place. The images of soldiers fighting with artillery in muddy trenches are reminiscent of World War I.
“This trench warfare shows that the front is extremely stable and that is why the fighting is extremely violent,” says our special envoy for Ukraine, Nicolas Coadou.
For General Jérôme Pellistrandi, BFMTV Defense Consultant, the losses are significant: they are estimated at “one or two hundred deaths on both sides per day.” A bloody conflict, to the point that the head of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner nicknamed this battle “the slaughterhouse”.
Finally claiming a “victory” for the Russians.
For General Pellistrandi, if the city is not strategic in itself, it has a “symbolic” value. “In a way, it would be the gateway to Kramatorsk,” he said.
After the failure of the fighting south of Donbass, in the Kiev region, the Russians decided to concentrate their efforts on Bakhmout, an objective considered accessible to the Russians and which should allow them to “say that we have a victory”, explains General Pellistrandi.
“Tactically, it’s the only place where they can really act,” he said.
However, if he succeeds, it would only be a “pyrrhic victory”, judges our Defense adviser. “Other cities fell that were reconquered” then, he recalls.
That is why the Moscow fighters are present in large numbers in the region. In addition to the soldiers called up as part of the partial mobilization, there are the “classic Russian forces, in particular the troops that were on the Kherson side and that have been redeployed,” explains General Jérôme Pellistrandi, BFMTV Defense consultant.
In the place there are also members of the Wagner militia, but also members of the militias of the self-proclaimed republics.
residents on the run
The city today has been disfigured by bombing. The streets are almost empty, our special correspondent Nicolas Coadou evokes an “almost ghost town”.
Of the 70,000 inhabitants of Bakhmout and its surroundings before the war, only 5,000 to 10,000 remain today. These survivors live “hidden in their basements in extremely complex unsanitary conditions.”
“We haven’t had gas since May and we haven’t had electricity for three months,” says Inna, a resident.
Therefore, many residents choose to flee. “They are shelling every day, 24 hours a day, it is impossible to breathe,” says Nina, a Bakhmout resident preparing to flee to Poland.
Move as far as possible “before winter” for the Russians
Is this goal really realistic for the Russians? Difficult to estimate for General Pellistrandi, who believes that “the balance of power is almost identical” between Russian and Ukrainian soldiers.
The city’s geography, made up of many HLM-type buildings and few hills, pushes Moscow’s forces into a “village by village” conquest, even “neighborhood by district”.
“The goal is to try to nibble as much ground as possible before winter or hear a recovery in spring,” estimates our Defense consultant. Therefore, the fight could still be long.
Source: BFM TV
