[bert]

If you look at the maps, there is nothing of strategic value there. The value was to the Wagner mercenaries that received bonus for territory.

Wagner salaries were cut 75% for non performance

[caww]

See post 10

[frithguild]

The Donbass is a collection of hills, rivers and ravines interspresed within industrial areas interconnected by many roadways and railroads, within a flat sea of Steppe. WW1 and WW2 experience demonstrates that it is natural defensive territory. AFU emplacement 8 years worth of defensive structures in the area, which tends to show the strategic importance of Bakhmut.

If Bakhmut falls, AFU supply lines from the West (across steppe that ends a few km west of Bakhmut) will be cut. This leaves Slavyansk and Kramatorsk as the single point for AFU logistics to AFU forces in the Donbass. If the AFU loses Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, they are out of the Donbass and their 8 years worth of defenses and into a maneuvering war on Steppe all the way to the Dneiper. In a maneuvering war, the AFU is screwed.

[lodi90]

There is a valuable salt mine there. The Wagner Nazis are financed by mining in Africa. Russian bandits are doing what they know best: destroy, steal and mass murder.