The fighting continues. There is no question for Ukraine of abandoning Bakhmout to the Russians after months of fierce and bloody battles in this city in the east of the country. The Ukrainian army thus announced on Monday its intention to “strengthen” its positions, refuting speculation about a withdrawal in the face of Russian troops who are trying to encircle this symbolic city.
This announcement comes at a time when the boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Evguéni Prigojine, has once again complained of a lack of ammunition for his men, on the front line in this battle which has been going on since last summer.
Far from backing down, while rumors of a withdrawal have been rife for a week, the commanders-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces “have come out in favor of continuing the defensive operation and strengthening our positions in Bakhmout” during a meeting Monday with the head of state Volodymyr Zelensky, said the Ukrainian presidency.
The American think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW), for its part, estimated on Sunday evening that the Ukrainian army was “probably in the process of carrying out a tactical retreat of limited magnitude” in Bakhmout.
Symbol of a costly struggle
A city of some 70,000 inhabitants before the war, Bakhmout has become, because of the length of the battle and the heavy losses incurred by both sides, the symbol of the struggle between Russians and Ukrainians for control of the industrial region of Donbass.
Russian troops have advanced in recent weeks north and south of the city, cutting off three of Ukraine’s four supply routes and leaving only the one leading further west to Chassiv Iar as an exit route. Despite the threat of encirclement and the city’s limited strategic importance, the Ukrainians continue to fiercely defend Bakhmout, where President Zelensky visited in December and vowed to hold out “as long as possible”.
While some analysts question the interest of the Ukrainians clinging to this now devastated city, the ISW estimated in a note that the defense of Bakhmout remains “strategically sensible”, because it “continues to ‘exhaust Russian manpower and equipment’.