The Battle of Bakhmut is an ongoing series of military engagements in and near the city of
Bakhmut
Bakhmut ( uk, Ба́хмут, ) is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is located on the Bakhmutka River, about 89 km north of Donetsk city, the administrative center of the o ...
between
Ukrainian Armed Forces
, imports =
, exports =
, history =
, ranks = Military ranks of Ukraine
, country=Ukraine
The Armed Forces of Ukraine ( uk, Збро́йні си́ли Украї́ни), most commonly known ...
and the
Russian Armed Forces
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (, ), commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military forces of Russia. In terms of active-duty personnel, they are the world's fifth-largest military force, with at least two m ...
during the larger
battle for Donbas. Shelling of Bakhmut began in May 2022, but the main assault towards the city began on 1 August after Russian forces advanced from the
Popasna
Popasna (, rus, Попасная, r=Popasnaya) is a ruined city in the Sievierodonetsk Raion, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine. In 2013, it had almost 22,000 inhabitants. Prior to 2020, it was the administrative center of the former Popasna Raion. In 20 ...
direction after a Ukrainian
withdrawal
Withdrawal means "an act of taking out" and may refer to:
* Anchoresis (withdrawal from the world for religious or ethical reasons)
* ''Coitus interruptus'' (the withdrawal method)
* Drug withdrawal
* Social withdrawal
* Taking of money from a ban ...
from that front.
The main assault force primarily consists of mercenaries from the Russian paramilitary organization
Wagner Group, supported by regular Russian troops and
DPR and LPR separatist elements.
As of late 2022, following Ukraine's
Kharkiv
Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.[Kherson
Kherson (, ) is a port city of Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers appr ...]
counteroffensives, the Bakhmut-
Soledar front became an important focus of the war, being one of the few front lines in Ukraine where Russia remained on the offensive.
Attacks on the city intensified in November 2022 as assaulting Russian forces were reinforced by units redeployed from the
Kherson front, together with newly mobilized recruits.
By this time, much of the front line had descended into positional
trench warfare
Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising military trenches, in which troops are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. Trench warfare became a ...
, with both sides suffering high casualties without any significant advances.
The intensity of battles in the Bakhmut sector has been compared to World Wars I and II.
Background
![Bakhmut after Russian shelling, 2022-05-17 (01)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Bakhmut_after_Russian_shelling%2C_2022-05-17_%2801%29.jpg)
Bakhmut, formerly known as Artemivsk, was the site of the 2014
battle of Artemivsk
The Battle of Artemivsk was a 2014 battle fought in the city of Artemivsk (historically and since 2016 known as Bakhmut) during the war in Donbas in eastern Ukraine as part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War. It involved armed confrontation betwe ...
between Ukraine and the self-declared separatist
Donetsk People's Republic
The Donetsk People's Republic ( rus, Донецкая Народная Республика, Donetskaya Narodnaya Respublika, dɐˈnʲetskəjə nɐˈrodnəjə rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə; abbreviated as DPR or DNR, rus, ДНР) is a Territorial ...
. Pro-Russian separatists had captured parts of the city during the
2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine
From the end of February 2014, demonstrations by pro-Russian and anti-government groups took place in major cities across the Eastern Ukraine, eastern and Southern Ukraine, southern regions of Ukraine in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dig ...
in April, and a Ukrainian special forces unit together with the
National Guard were dispatched to expel the separatists from the city. The separatists were expelled to the city's outskirts where clashes continued until July 2014, when they finally retreated from the area.
During the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
, a key Russian goal was to
capture
Capture may refer to:
*Asteroid capture, a phenomenon in which an asteroid enters a stable orbit around another body
*Capture, a software for lighting design, documentation and visualisation
*"Capture" a song by Simon Townshend
*Capture (band), an ...
the
Donbas
The Donbas or Donbass (, ; uk, Донба́с ; russian: Донба́сс ) is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. Parts of the Donbas are controlled by Russian separatist groups as a result of the Russo-Ukrai ...
region, consisting of
Donetsk
Donetsk ( , ; uk, Донецьк, translit=Donets'k ; russian: Донецк ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin and Stalino (see also: Names of European cities in different languages (C–D), cities' alternat ...
and
Luhansk oblasts. The initial push for Bakhmut was part of an attempt to encircle the Ukrainian forces at the
Sievierodonetsk-
Lysychansk salient, together with another push from the
Lyman
Lyman may refer to:
Places Ukraine
* Lyman, Ukraine
United States
* Lyman, Iowa
* Lyman, Maine
* Lyman, Mississippi
* Lyman, Nebraska
* Lyman, New Hampshire
* Lyman, Oklahoma
* Lyman, South Carolina
* Lyman, South Dakota
* Lyman County, South Dak ...
direction, it would create a
pocket
A pocket is a bag- or envelope-like receptacle either fastened to or inserted in an article of clothing to hold small items. Pockets are also attached to luggage, backpacks, and similar items. In older usage, a pocket was a separate small bag o ...
and trap Ukrainian forces there.
Starting on 17 May, Russian forces began shelling Bakhmut, killing five people including a two-year-old child. After the
fall of Popasna on 22 May, Ukrainian forces withdrew away from the city to reinforce positions at Bakhmut.
Meanwhile, Russian forces managed to advance on the Bakhmut-Lysychansk highway, endangering the remaining Ukrainian troops in the Lysychansk-Sievierodonetsk area. The Russian checkpoint along the highway was later demolished, although fighting resumed on 30 May along the
Kostiantynivka
Kostiantynivka ( uk, Костянтинівка, ; russian: Константиновка) is an industrial city in the Donetsk Oblast (province) of eastern Ukraine, on the river. Administratively, it is incorporated as a city of oblast signific ...
-
Bakhmut
Bakhmut ( uk, Ба́хмут, ) is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is located on the Bakhmutka River, about 89 km north of Donetsk city, the administrative center of the o ...
highway, where Ukrainian forces successfully defended the highway.
Shelling of Bakhmut continued throughout the rest of June and July, escalating after the
battle of Siversk
The Battle of Siversk was a military engagement during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, as part of the battle of Donbas of the wider eastern Ukraine offensive, that began on 3 July 2022. Russian forces ceased launching assaults on and aroun ...
began on 3 July. Following the battles of
Sievierodonetsk and
Lysychansk in early July, Russian and separatist forces captured all of Luhansk oblast, and the battlefield shifted towards the cities of
Bakhmut
Bakhmut ( uk, Ба́хмут, ) is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is located on the Bakhmutka River, about 89 km north of Donetsk city, the administrative center of the o ...
, and
Soledar. On 25 July, Ukrainian forces withdrew from the
Vuhlehirska Power Station, along with the nearby town of Novoluhanske, giving Russian and separatist forces a "small tactical advantage" towards Bakhmut. Two days later on 27 July, Russian shelling of Bakhmut killed three civilians and wounded three more.
Prior to the battle in Bakhmut, Ukrainian Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskiy claimed that Russia held a five-to-one manpower advantage over Ukraine along the eastern front.
Battle
Early shelling and Russian encroachment (August–October 2022)
On 1 August, Russian forces launched massive ground attacks on settlements south and southeast of Bakhmut. Both the Russian Ministry of Defense and pro-Russian Telegram pages claimed that the battle of Bakhmut had begun. The following day, Ukraine reported that Russian forces had increased airstrikes and shelling of Bakhmut, beginning a ground attack on the southeastern part of the city. On 4 August,
Wagner Group mercenaries managed to break through Ukrainian defenses and reach
Patrice Lumumba street on the eastern outskirts of Bakhmut. In the following days, Russian forces continued to push towards Bakhmut from the south, with the Ukrainian general staff stating on 14 August that Russian forces had achieved "partial success" near Bakhmut, but offering no specifics.
Night shelling in the city center on 21 September burned the Martynov Palace of Culture, where the humanitarian headquarters worked. During the extinguishing of the fire, the local fire department was shelled, which reported that two
SES staff were injured and equipment damaged. At night, a five-story building was partially destroyed by Russian shelling. A Russian missile strike on 22 September destroyed the main bridge across the Bakhmutka river that bisects the city, disrupting both civilian travel and Ukrainian military logistics.
On 7 October, Russian forces advanced into the villages of Zaitseve and
Opytne on the southern and southeastern outskirts of Bakhmut, while on 10 October, the UK Defence Ministry claimed that Russian troops advanced closer to Bakhmut. On 12 October, Russian forces claimed to have captured Opytne, located 3 km south of Bakhmut, and
Ivanhrad, although these towns were still contested. Ukrainian sources said a minor counteroffensive on 24 October pushed Russian forces from some factories on the eastern outskirts of the city, along Patrice Lumumba street.
Winter escalation (November–December 2022)
![Battle of Bakhmut 3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Battle_of_Bakhmut_3.jpg)
By early November, much of the fighting around Bakhmut had descended into
trench warfare
Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising military trenches, in which troops are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. Trench warfare became a ...
conditions, with neither side making any significant breakthroughs and hundreds of casualties reported daily amid fierce shelling and artillery duels.
On 1 November, Ukrainian journalist
Yurii Butusov described the evolving nature of the battle in an interview. Butusov noted that Russian forces had suffered "huge losses every day" assaulting Bakhmut and its outskirts since early May, but insisted that they were adapting their tactics against increasingly exhausted Ukrainian defenders. He noted that the Russians were concentrating multiple small groups of infantry to break defense lines on "narrow" sections of the front.
Russian forces breached defense lines along Bakhmut's southern flank, capturing the villages of Andriivka, Ozarianivka, and Zelenopillia, and making minor advances in Opytne through 28–29 November. Wagner troops attacked Kurdyumivka, adjacent to Ozarianivka, with some Russian
milbloggers claiming the settlement was captured. Russian forces also attacked Ukrainian positions southeast of Bakhmut. On 3 December, Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine's
Eastern Command, described the Bakhmut front as "the most bloody, cruel and brutal sector ... in the Russian-Ukrainian war so far," adding that the Russians had conducted 261 artillery attacks in the past day alone. The same day, a Georgia military volunteer told the media that a group of
Georgian volunteers had been surrounded during clashes near Bakhmut. The commander was wounded and five or six volunteers, serving in Ukraine's
57th Brigade, had been killed, prompting Georgian president
Salome Zourabichvili to express condolences.
On 6–7 December, the Russian defense ministry claimed that their forces, including Wagner fighters, had successfully repelled Ukrainian counterattacks south of Bakhmut. The commander of the
Ukraine National Guard's Svoboda Battalion, defending Bakhmut's southern flank, said they were "fighting for every bush" and predicted Russia would struggle to overcome a canal above and behind Kudriumivka.
[
On 9 December, President ]Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, ; russian: Владимир Александрович Зеленский, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskyy, (born 25 January 1978; also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy) is a Ukrainian politicia ...
accused Russia of "destroying" Bakhmut, calling it "another Donbas city that the Russian army turned into burnt ruins." Former soldier and eyewitness to the battle Petro Stone called the Bakhmut front a "meat grinder," saying the Russians were "covering Bakhmut with fire 24/7". Soldiers of Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade recounted recent battlefield engagements to media, such as one multi-day firefight with 50 Russian troops dug into a treeline where in some places "we were only 100 metres apart." Ukrainian soldiers claimed that front line Russian troops often attacked with little tank support, with Wagner PMC fighters serving as the main assault troops and under-equipped ''mobiks'' (recently mobilized Russian recruits) holding defensive positions. One Ukrainian artillerymen alleged that "80 percent" of the remaining civilian population, surviving in basements and supplied by mobile grocery trucks that periodically enter the city, was pro-Russian.
On 11–13 December, Russian sources claimed that Wagner fighters had breached defenses in east Bakhmut, occupying the northern section of Fyodor Maksimenko Street in Zabakhmutka district and having advanced along Patrice Lumumba street in the industrial zone, fully capturing the Siniat ALC factory and sparkling wine/"artwinery" plant. On the outskirts, Wagner also purportedly stormed Pidhorodne, located on Bakhmut's northeastern flank, and made minor advances amid heavy fighting in Opytne, on the southern approach to Bakhmut. The claims of Russian advances were not independently verified at the time, but the Ukrainian General Staff confirmed clashes in Bakhmutske, Soledar, and Pidhorodne, though it claimed it repelled all assaults. On 11 December a railway bridge over the E40 (M-03) highway north of Bakhmut was destroyed; the Russians accused the Ukrainians of demolishing it to hamper future Russian advances towards Sloviansk.
Around the same time, rumours emerged that the 93rd Mechanized Brigade was going to be rotated out of Bakhmut due the high casualties. Ukrainian high command did not confirm nor deny the rumours but clarified that there were planned rotations, replacement and redeployment of units to other fronts.
By 13 December, Russian sources claimed that proper urban street fighting had begun in the eastern and southeastern sectors of Bakhmut, particularly along Pershotravnevyy avenue up to Dobroliubova street in Zabakhmutka, while also claiming that 90% of Opytne had been captured amid fierce Ukrainian resistance. The Ukrainian General Staff said they successfully repelled assaults northeast and south of Bakhmut from the Soledar and Kurdiumivka directions, respectively. On 17 December, footage emerged online of trenches in Bakhmut's city center, indicating Ukrainian defenders were preparing for urban combat. On 18–19 December, Ukrainian forces, purportedly including dismounted infantry supported by British-donated Wolfhound Tactical Supply Vehicles, counterattacked along Fyodor Maksimenko Street and pushed Wagner forces back to the eastern outskirts of the suburban area amid "grinding" street clashes. Meanwhile, Ukraine's Joint Forces Task Force reported repelling "five to seven" Russian infiltration groups near Bakhmut daily. A Ukrainian commander reported that an abundance of drone surveillance allowed for quick responses to small Russian assaults on the outskirts, while also alleging that Russia did not control Bakhmut's eastern industrial zone. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Western think tank and war observer, could not independently verify the claim of Ukraine entirely controlling the outskirts at the time.
On 20–21 December, President Zelenskyy made an unannounced visit to the Bakhmut front, where he met with soldiers, awarded medals and delivered speeches. Meanwhile, heavy shelling and fighting on Bakhmut's outskirts[ continued as Russian forces continuously attempted to break entrenched Ukrainian positions on the city's flanks. Reportedly, Wagner fighters were assaulting strongholds in Bakhmutske, Pidhorodne, and Klishciivka, located along Bakhmut's northeastern and southwestern flanks respectively, while the Ukrainians continued to hold northern Opytne, blunting Russia's advance from the south. On 26 December, Ukraine's governor of Donetsk Pavlo Kyrylenko said over 60 percent of Bakhmut's infrastructure was damaged or destroyed. The ISW judged that Russia's advance on Bakhmut had "culminated" by 28 December, assessing that Russian and Wagner forces had grown increasingly unable to sustain the previous scale of infantry assaults and artillery barrages. By early January 2023, the pace of fighting and rate of artillery fire in the Bakhmut sector had significantly decreased, and the Kyiv Independent remarked that the battle was "near culmination".
]
Continued fighting (January 2023–present)
Following a local offensive in early January 2023, Russian forces captured the nearby town of Soledar, located north of Bakhmut, by 16 January 2023. In its January 7 assessment, the ISW had considered the capture of Soledar as helping Russian forces to advance on Bakhmut from the north, although it assessed they would need to take control of the T0513 Siversk-Bakhmut highway, located west of Russia's positions near Soledar, to cut Ukraine's supply lines to Bakhmut.
By 20 January 2023, both the Russian defence ministry and Wagner forces claimed to have captured Klishchiivka, a village located southwest of Bakhmut, although Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was estab ...
could not independently verify the claims at the time. On 1 February, ''The New York Times'' reported that Russians had increased the intensification of the attacks on the city and its surrounding areas.
Casualties
Due to the fog of war and deliberately unpublished casualty figures from both sides, the true number of military and civilian casualties due to the battle is unknown, although casualties are presumed to be heavy. Media outlets estimated hundreds of civilians and military from both sides killed and wounded each day amid battlefield conditions reminiscent of the First and Second World Wars.
Military casualties
On 10 November, the Ukrainians claimed that the Wagner Group had suffered nearly 140 casualties in the last 24 hours, including over 40 men killed, in fighting near Bakhmut. In early December the Ukrainian government estimated that 50-100 Russian soldiers were killed in the Bakhmut sector each day. Some Ukrainian commanders estimated that Russia suffered 100-300 casualties in Bakhmut alone on some days. On 22 December, John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said that United States intelligence had indicated that about 1,000 Wagner fighters had been killed near Bakhmut in recent weeks. On 25 December, the Ukrainian military claimed Russia had lost 140 killed and 180 wounded on the Bakhmut front in the previous two days. By early January 2023, a soldier of the Ukrainian National Guard claimed in an interview to UNIAN
The UNIAN or Ukrainian Independent Information Agency of News ( uk, Українське Незалежне Інформаційне Агентство Новин, УНІАН, translit=Ukrayins'ke Nezalezhne Informatsiyne Ahentstvo Novyn) is a ...
that Wagner suffered an almost 80% casualty rate in attacks as the wounded are not rescued and are left to die. The Ukrainian military claimed 277 Russian soldiers were killed and 258 were injured on 31 January alone.
On 27 November, ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reported a high level of casualties for both armies, also placing the number of Ukrainian wounded at 290 in the previous 36 hours. On 29 December, Advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine Oleksii Arestovych said Ukraine was suffering "serious losses" along the Soledar-Bakhmut front, but claimed Russia was suffering even higher casualties. On 1 February, the Associated Press reported that the Wagner Group have had more than 4,100 of its soldiers die and additional 10,000 wounded, with 1,000 dead in late November and early December 2022 near Bakhmut, according to the ISW.
Civilian casualties
By 5 November, the deputy mayor of Bakhmut claimed that over 120 civilians had been killed in the city proper. By early December, only between 7,000 and 15,000 of Bakhmut's prewar population of 80,000 remained in the city. On 16 December, three civilians were wounded by shelling. By 13 January 2023, shelling in Bakhmut had killed at least an additional 22 civilians and wounded 72 since early December. Since 13 January, Russian attacks in Bakhmut have killed at least three more civilians.
Analysis
Battlefield conditions
The battle of Bakhmut has been described as one of the bloodiest battles of the 21st century, with the battlefield being described as a "meat grinder" and a "vortex" for both the Ukrainian and Russian militaries. With extremely high casualties, costly ground assaults with very little ground gained, and shell-pocked landscapes, volunteers, media, and government officials alike compared fighting in Bakhmut to battlefield conditions on the western front Western Front or West Front may refer to:
Military frontiers
*Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...
of World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Retired U.S. Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through comb ...
Colonel Andrew Milburn
The Mozart Group was a private military company operating in Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Mozart Group was composed of Western volunteers with military experience and provided military training, civilian evacuations ...
, the leader of a foreign volunteer group in Ukraine called the Mozart Group and an eyewitness to the battle, compared conditions in the Bakhmut countryside to Passchendaele and the city itself to Dresden in World War II. On 11 January 2023, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak described the fighting ongoing at Bakhmut and Soledar as the bloodiest since the start of the invasion.
Personnel and tactics
Russian assault forces have primarily composed of Wagner Group mercenary contractors and ex-convicts, reinforcements from other front lines in Ukraine, and newly mobilized recruits the Ukrainians refer to as ''mobiks''. Some observers likened Russian tactics to Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
-style human wave attack
The human wave attack, also known as the human sea attack, is an offensive infantry tactic in which an attacker conducts an unprotected frontal assault with densely concentrated infantry formations against the enemy line, intended to overrun and ...
s, repeatedly assaulting Ukrainian positions with waves of infantry. Reportedly, Wagner's forces composed of a majority of recruited, under-trained ex-convicts and a minority of well-trained contractors serving as group commanders that operate efficiently and encrypt radio communications.[ Some Ukrainian soldiers alleged that Wagner used its recruited ex-convicts as first wave "human bait" to reveal Ukrainian positions, with those refusing to advance being threatened with "execution" by firing squads or ]barrier troops
Barrier troops, blocking units, or anti-retreat forces are military units that are located in the rear or on the front line (behind the main forces) to maintain military discipline, prevent the flight of servicemen from the battlefield, capture spi ...
and those who were wounded in the assaults were usually not rescued. Russia has also targeted Bakhmut with Iranian made drones after 450 of them were sent to Russia in mid-October 2022. The New York Times reported that Ukraine's use of well-trained National Guard and infantry units against poorly-trained Wagner forces was tying down Ukraine's well-trained units and was preventing Ukraine from conducting offensives not only in the present but for the future. In late January 2023, however, Russia began supplanting Wagner units with better-trained National Guard (Rosgvardia) and paratroopers, enabling them to make further advances in the Bakhmut sector.
The Ukrainian defenders consist of a "hodgepodge of units", consisting initially of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade and the 58th Motorized Brigade, who were later reinforced by many other units—including special forces
Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...
and territorial defense units—in order to fill in gaps caused by heavy casualties. Units are also constantly rotated to replenish casualties and prevent combat fatigue. On 10 January 2023, Polish think tank Rochan Consulting estimated Ukraine may have ten brigades fighting in Bakhmut, or around 30,000 personnel.
Strategic value
The overall strategic value of Bakhmut has been considered dubious by many analysts, observing that the resources and lives Russia has spent assaulting the city far outweigh its importance. The UK defence ministry and U.S. National Security Council
The United States National Security Council (NSC) is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for consideration of national security, military, and foreign policy matters. Based in the White House, it is part of the Exe ...
have both insisted capturing Bakhmut would only be a "symbolic" victory for Russia rather than a strategic one. Some observers noted that Bakhmut is a key regional logistics and transport hub where two roads, the T0504 to Kostiantynivka
Kostiantynivka ( uk, Костянтинівка, ; russian: Константиновка) is an industrial city in the Donetsk Oblast (province) of eastern Ukraine, on the river. Administratively, it is incorporated as a city of oblast signific ...
and T0513 to Siversk, pass through.[ Jon Roozenbeek, ]British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences.
It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...
postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, observed that securing Bakhmut would put Kramatorsk and Sloviansk within sufficient Russian artillery range. Konrad Muzyka, and expert on Russian security Mark Galeotti
Mark Galeotti (born October 1965) is a London-based political scientist, lecturer and writer on transnational crime and Russian security affairs and director of the consultancy Mayak Intelligence. He is an honorary professor at the UCL School of ...
, argued that Russia's costly assault is a matter of both preserving prestige and sunk cost fallacy
In economics and business decision-making, a sunk cost (also known as retrospective cost) is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Sunk costs are contrasted with '' prospective costs'', which are future costs that may be ...
—that Russian forces had already expended so much manpower in the war effort on other fronts that it "may as well do everything they can" to seize the city.
Retired Ukrainian colonel Serhiy Hrabskyi suggested Wagner Group was seeking glory in capturing Bakhmut, as leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is poised to reap significant monetary and political rewards if Wagner captures the city on behalf of the Russian government. Prighozhin himself had previously suggested Wagner was deliberately turning Bakhmut into a "meat grinder" to inflict heavy attritional casualties on Ukrainian forces.
See also
* Battle of Artemivsk
The Battle of Artemivsk was a 2014 battle fought in the city of Artemivsk (historically and since 2016 known as Bakhmut) during the war in Donbas in eastern Ukraine as part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War. It involved armed confrontation betwe ...
– 2014 battle for the same city
*
References
{{2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
Bakhmut
Bakhmut ( uk, Ба́хмут, ) is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is located on the Bakhmutka River, about 89 km north of Donetsk city, the administrative center of the o ...
Bakhmut
May 2022 events in Ukraine
June 2022 events in Ukraine
July 2022 events in Ukraine
August 2022 events in Ukraine
November 2022 events in Ukraine
December 2022 events in Ukraine
Eastern Ukraine offensive
Battles involving the Donetsk People's Republic
History of Donetsk Oblast
Bakhmut
Bakhmut ( uk, Ба́хмут, ) is a city in the Donbas and the administrative centre of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is located on the Bakhmutka River, about 89 km north of Donetsk city, the administrative center of the o ...
September 2022 events in Ukraine
October 2022 events in Ukraine
January 2023 events in Ukraine