Posted on 05/17/2023 3:43:51 AM PDT by FarCenter
Ukraine is close to retreating from Bakhmut. This could happen anytime now, but it has to happen fast enough before exit routes are closed down. Predictions of a timetable vary, but the Ukrainians should evacuate Bakhmut no later than the weekend, provided they can.
There are still a couple of roads open to exit the city, secured in part by Ukrainian army attacks on the flanks of the city. But these roadways and fields will not stay available if the Wagner forces pour in fast.
Monday night the Wagner forces stormed and took the two most fortified and defensible parts of the Citadel area of the city – pushing the Ukrainians back into the last part of the Citadel, which is mainly low-rise buildings. These will be hard to hold.
There is also fighting around a portion of the city’s northwestern sector where the Ukrainians are holding out at the Children’s Hospital (long since evacuated of patients). The purpose of the Ukrainian force is to hold this area to keep the road open out of the city in that direction and to divert Wagner forces from taking over the entire Citadel too quickly.
The Ukrainians could negotiate a safe withdrawal with the Russians, but it is unlikely that President Volodmyr Zelensky will allow that to happen. Furthermore, the so-called leaks about Wagner force boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s communications with Ukrainian intelligence – although he has denied them heatedly – make it almost impossible for the Wagners to make any deals with their Ukrainian enemies.
The battle for Bakhmut is Zelensky’s battle, because he demanded that his army stay there and fight even after his commanders told him it was too costly and not worth taking needless losses. The battle has raged for eight or nine months and, to a degree, has caused big losses on both sides. Recently his top commanders have put out statements that the fight was worth it. It is likely Zelensky demanded these statements of support.
The big question is: What is next? The Russians could use their forces to move toward Chasiv Yar and push the Ukrainian army back toward the Dnieper river. The Dnieper is absolutely strategic for Ukraine. If the Russians can reach its banks, Ukraine will be cut in half.
The Ukrainians have to be careful in mounting their planned but not yet executed great offensive because, if they leave their back door open, the Russians have sufficient forces to handle an offensive and to move on toward Chasiv Yar and beyond. There is a danger the Ukrainian army could be trapped from the north and the south and be unable to gain a breakthrough that could justify trying an offensive aimed at the Kherson region or the Zaporizhzhia region or even Crimea.
So which report is right??
Picture of Bakhmut. Russians-"We are here to rescue you"
.
I don’t think any reports are trustworthy, but I do get the impression that the Ukrainian counter-offensive mostly involves Russian troops moving forward and seizing objectives. Weird.
Think of it as the Battle of Verdun.
Be fair now. I won’t waste my time listing all the times the Russians have been defeated, Wagner Group selling out the Russians, BS disinfo, BS disinfo, ad nauseam from Team Uke Corruption about Bakhmut. My goodness, yesterday we were swimming in Western disinfo about this. It’s all disinfo from both sides. It is amusing watching the dueling purveyors of it though. This place might change hands again, it might not. It doesn’t matter any more than hill ### changing hands again in Korea 70 years ago. The stalemated quagmire continues regardless.
Not the end of Bakhmut. Just the end of nazi ownership of Bakhmut.
Define Nazi, as I see it Russia is acting more like Hitler than not. Invading, torture, killing civilians, razing cities…. And after 10 months they might take one small city and then perhaps be encircled and their army destroyed or captured sounds a bit like another city as I recall in Ww2
Fresh pics and video out of bakhmut show Russian artillery pounding the last few blocks of Ukrainian control with smoke coming out of almost every building
What is the point of staying there now?
“The End”
by The Doors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXqPNlng6uI&ab_channel=TheDoors-Topic
Just remember Putin is “literally” out of moves…… 7 months ago
https://thehill.com/policy/international/3674651-petraeus-putin-is-literally-out-of-moves/amp/
Putin should be getting assassinated any time. His health is so bad that he’s about to die. There’s a coup that should remove him very soon! The Russians are running out of ammo.
On and on and on the West lies and the idiots here on FR continue to lick up the lies like dogs and just can’t get enough of it.
Meanwhile........ having been killed by the thousands attempting to capture Bakhmut. The remaining Russians have retreated to safety
So, we can now just repost re-runs of old articles from months gone by? Doesn’t seem to matter what the actual story is, since that isn’t the point anymore.
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