Of course, in order to succeed they have to be used properly, which the Russian officers don't appear to be doing.
There is a reason that Moscow might be resorting to human wave attacks.
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Its not Moscow - these are Wagner Group mercenaries - the boss recruited them form Russia’s prisons. This serves to empty the prisons out and save Moscow money.
They have a 2 month contract with Prigozhin and their sentences will be commuted, but if the retreat they will be shot, or like one troop, who was captured and returned in a POW exchange, have their heads bashed in with a sledgehammer. Video on the internet somewhere.
The idea Prigozhin said was for them to kill high grade material (Ukrainian troops) and die because they are low grade material. Taking Bakhmut is not the objective. Killing UA troops, in this war of attrition, is. This is the exchange both Putin and Prigozhin are willing to make - the number of Russian that die is not relevant to their calculations.
Wars of Attrition are like this and have not been seen in modern times. However, Attrition is the Russian way of war - everyone and everything is expendable to achieve the objective. 100K dead or 2 million dead - all the same to Russia.
“There is a reason that Moscow might be resorting to human wave attacks. They are one of the few tactics that can still succeed when you can’t provide your troops with sufficient firepower or training to implement other tactics. I can’t imagine ‘climbing over the dead bodies of those that went before you.’
“There is a guy just sitting in a trench amongst corpses. He in just sits there smoking and getting ready to die.”
VIDEO 1.47
“Russian soldiers face certain death in these attacks, but they are not retreating.” 1.50
“You can shoot his head off but his comrades keep coming They were being threatened to being killed either way.” 1.57
“Their own commanders will shoot them if they don’t attack.” 2.04
“We talked to prisoners of war that say executions are common there. Those who refuse to attack are called defectors and are publicly executed by firing squad in groups of two or three.” 2.20