The war is not diminishing in intensity, according to Kyiv. The fight for control of Soledar and Bakhmout in eastern Ukraine is the “bloodiest” for Russian and Ukrainian forces since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, said Mykhaïlo Podoliak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency.
“What is happening today in the direction of Bakhmout or Soledar is the bloodiest scene of this war,” he told AFP in an interview on Wednesday afternoon, as Russian forces, in particular the Wagner paramilitary group, try to conquer this zone. of Donbass since the summer of 2022.
“A lot of blood, a lot of artillery duels, a lot of contact combat, especially in Soledar today,” Podoliak summed up this Wednesday, noting that it is currently “the hottest point of the war.”
According to him, the Russian military losses are “enormous” and “the Ukrainian army is also losing men.” “Certainly, it’s more than there’s been before,” he said.
Russian soldiers dying “by the thousands”, according to Kyiv
The presidential adviser pointed out that the losses in the Bakhmout-Soledar area are essentially military, with few civilians remaining living in this area, unlike the Russian headquarters in the large city of Mariupol (southeastern Ukraine) in the first months of 2022. , which undoubtedly claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians, according to Kyiv estimates.
“Today (this is the bloodiest), excluding the constant bombardment of Mariupol,” he insisted, but “if in Mariupol we had 90% of civilian deaths, in Soledar and Bakhmout, they are soldiers.”
“We see the absolutely irresponsible, to put it mildly, attitude of the Russian elite towards their military, who are dying there by the thousands,” he said. He did not quantify Ukrainian losses, but estimated that the Russians have lost “10,000 to 15,000 men, maybe more” in this area since the summer. “For us there are losses, significant losses, for them these losses are just extraordinary,” Podoliak said.
Russian “No strategic objectives”
According to him, Russia threw its best units of Wagner and the regular army into this battle, while even a victory would not allow, he said, Moscow to turn the tide of the war.
“From a strategic point of view, this doesn’t make much sense for the Russian military. Because fundamentally it will not solve the question of taking the initiative in this war, ”he stressed.
“There is no strategic target (in Bakhmout and Soledar). For us (Ukrainians), it is a possible bridgehead to advance towards Donetsk,” capital of the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of the same name, Podoliak said. “But for the Russians, there is no strategic objective, it is open space and our positions are more advantageous.”
Russia has been on the defensive in Ukraine since it suffered a series of bitter setbacks between September and November 2022 in the east and south of the country. These defeats forced the Kremlin to mobilize hundreds of thousands of inexperienced, ill-equipped and poorly trained reservists to consolidate its lines.
Bakhmout and the small neighboring town of Soledar are the only place on the front where Russian forces are continuing their offensive, so far failing to capture these towns.
Source: BFM TV
