What is Happening in Bakhmut?
what is happening in bakhmut city
why they call it the meat grinder
why the city is important for russia and ukraine
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appears to be of like mind — over the course of the war, he was reluctant to pull out of the salt-mining town of Soledar earlier this year after a nearly six month-long fight, and he has now rejected calls to withdraw from an even more prolonged and ferocious fight in nearby Bakhmut.
There’s been some behind-the-scenes disquiet among the Ukrainian ranks about continuing with this almost 9-month-long battle at Bakhmut. And earlier this week, United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters that “if the Ukrainians decide to reposition, I wouldn’t view that as an operational or strategic setback.”
Russia, meanwhile, has been determined to record a victory at Bakhmut — located just 6 miles southwest of Soledar, which was overrun two months ago after Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group sacrificed thousands of its untrained fighters there.
So, for Ukraine, is Bakhmut really worth it? Or is Zelenskyy being Napoleon-like in his refusal to disengage from what appears to be a meat-grinder of a battle?
Bakhmut is the longest and bloodiest battle of the war so far, and it has seen Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin once again hurl his men — mostly recruited from Russian jails — into the maelstrom with a reckless abandon that’s shocked observers and seasoned fighters on both sides. Andrey Medvedev, a Russian defector who recently fled to Norway, told reporters last month that the former convicts were being used as cannon fodder at Bakhmut. “In my platoon, only three men out of 30 survived. We were then given more prisoners, and many of them also died,” he said.
But the Ukrainians acknowledge they’ve also been suffering significant casualties at Bakhmut, which Russia is coming ever closer to encircling. They claim Russia’s losing seven soldiers for each Ukrainian life lost — though NATO military officials put the ratio closer to 5-to-1.
Among those killed last week was Ukraine’s youngest battalion commander, 27-year-old Dmytro Kotsiubailo — a veteran who was awarded the Hero of Ukraine medal for his bravery after joining up to fight in the Donbas in 2014. One of his men, U.S. volunteer James Vasquez, tweeted: “This is a devastating loss to all our men. A prolific young leader and fearless respected battalion commander. Tomorrow we will go in with heavy hearts.”
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