Scott Ritter: Well first let's understand that the battle for Bahkmut has been going on for many, many months now. Bahkmut is the "Gordian knot" of the Ukrainian defensive belt that exists in Donestk. A defensive belt that has been constructed on a continuous basis since 2014. It is one of the most extensive, fortified defense systems in modern history. It is manned with troops. It has the support of heavy equipment, artillery, etc. And the Russians have been in the business of grinding it down for many weeks and what we see right now is basically we are seeing the culmination of all of the Russian effort.
I always laugh when people say, "How could Ukraine be outgunned." I don't know maybe because they only have x number of artillery pieces and the Russians have x times 10. I know that when I have more artillery pieces than you I am going to win that fight generally speaking especially in positional warfare where you have made is pretty easy for me by sitting in your positions that I can identify using my intelligence resources and pound you into submission.
You know there are two aspects to this fight. One is that the Russians are more than happy to let the Ukrainians sit in place and suffer casualties. Often times the Ukrainian battalion will rotate into the front lines and days later will rotate out suffering 60% casualties without ever having seen a Russian. They'll just show up and they die. Then they leave and another battalion comes in . And that's the thing. The Ukrainians are rotating battalions in. Every once in a while The Ukrainians will fail to rotate in on time; leave some chink in their armor and if that time is right the Russians will carry out an assault on that position. This is extraordinarily bloody combat, close quarters combat of the most intimate nature. They will face-to-face in trench; hand grenades, knives, bayonets, rifle stocks, bullets at close range and the Russians tend to prevail, seize the position and then they wait and start the process of grinding down the next position.
The goal of the Russians, of course, is to kill as many Ukrainians as possible and fortunately for Russia Ukraine is giving them plenty of opportunities to do just this by their tactics. One has to wonder at what point in time Ukrainians will recognize that the price of holding on to Bahkmut is too high. That Ukraine would be better off preserving these forces; some of who are well trained and using them as a mobile defense capable at least of lowering the casualty ratio. Right now Russia is enjoying an 8 to 1; 10 to 1 ratio primarily because it can exploit its artillery advantage. Even when Ukraine has modern Western artillery such as the M777 from the United States...the HIMARS, other artillery systems from other NATO countries they don't exist in sufficient quantities to level the battle field."
How Ukraine’s 1st Tank Brigade Fought A Russian Force Ten Times Its Size—And Won
David Axe, Forbes Staff • 1h ago
12-25-2022 7:08 p.m. EST