The Wagner group, not the regular Russian military, is kicking the Ukrainian army's ass:
https://kyivindependent.com/national/ukrainian-soldiers-in-bakhmut-our-troops-are-not-being-protected
They say that Russian artillery, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers are often allowed to strike Ukrainian positions for hours or days without being shut down by Ukrainian heavy weapons. Some complained of poor coordination and situational awareness, allowing this to happen or making it even worse.
Mortarmen spoke of extreme ammunition scarcity and having to use weapons dating back to World War II. Drones that are supposed to provide critical reconnaissance information are also scarce and are being lost at very high rates in some parts of the battlefield.
All this leads to terrifying casualties of both dead and wounded. "The battalion came in in the middle of December… between all the different platoons, there were 500 of us," says Borys, a combat medic from Odesa Oblast fighting around Bakhmut. "A month ago, there were literally 150 of us."
“When you go out to the position, it’s not even a 50/50 chance that you’ll come out of there (alive),” says the older Serhiy. “It’s more like 30/70.”
"In fairness, 🇺🇦 is doing better than 🇷🇺 in aggregate and individual men have a limited picture of the battlefield, so I'm not making any assumptions about what command's doing."War is not a one sided affair. It is equally horrific for both sides. He was doing his job evenhandedly, reporting how bad it was for Ukraine around Bakhmut."But it'd be remiss of me not to write what those guys told me about their personal experiences."
He still thinks the Russians have it worse. If its as bad as he says it is for Ukraine, how bad is it for the Russians if they have it even worse?