Ukrainian forces inflict ‘high casualties’ as battle for Bakhmut rages
Mike Brest
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Ukrainian troops are continuing to fight in the besieged city of Bakhmut, inflicting a high casualty count among Russian forces.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting with military leaders on Monday, according to a readout from his office. Military leaders advised the president they should continue the defensive operations in Bakhmut and should work to strengthen their position in the city.
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The fighting in Bakhmut, a city with a prewar population of roughly 70,000 people, has gone on for months, leaving both sides suffering devastating casualties, while Russia has made incremental progress in recent weeks.
Ukrainian forces could be conducting a limited withdrawal in the eastern part of Bakhmut while “inflict[ing] high casualties against the advancing mixed Russian forces,” the Institute for the Study of War said in its Sunday war update. “Ukrainian forces are likely conducting a limited tactical withdrawal in Bakhmut, although it is still too early to assess Ukrainian intentions concerning a complete withdrawal from the city.”
Should Russian forces take the city, “they could then attempt renewed pushes towards one or both of Kostyantynivka or Slovyansk but would struggle with endemic personnel and equipment constraints.”
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said on Monday that one of Ukraine’s top military chiefs, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the country’s land forces, visited troops in Bakhmut a day earlier.
“All this time, the enemy’s attempts to capture the city have been defeated by the resilience of our soldiers,” he said. “Our defenders inflicted significant losses on the enemy, destroyed a large number of vehicles, forced Wagner’s best assault units to fight, and reduced the enemy’s offensive potential.”
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Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who is in the Middle East this week, said Ukraine retreating from Bakhmut wouldn’t constitute “an operational or strategic setback” for the Ukrainian military, according to CNN.
“I certainly don’t want to discount the tremendous work that the Ukrainian soldiers and leaders have put into defending Bakhmut, but I think it’s more of a symbolic value than it is strategic and operational value,” Austin said during a visit to Amman, Jordan. “So the fall of Bakhmut won’t necessarily mean that the Russians have changed the tide of this fight. I think it will continue to be contested.”