10/28/2023 0 Comments Greatest tank battles - deathtrap in oNow with a multipronged Russian offensive in its seventh or eighth week, Bakhmut could fall in a matter of days. Ukraine Territorial Control (Updated weekly) The elevation difference makes it vulnerable to mortar rocket fire the crossroads make it more important for running troops and equipment to nearby positions. The city is also located on relatively open flatland, surrounded by slightly higher elevations and sitting at the junction of several major roads. Straddling the Bakhmutka River, just 20 kilometers west of the Luhansk region administrative border, the city, with a prewar population of around 70,000, used to be known mostly for its sparkling wines and salt mines. The city may fall entirely to Russian hands in the coming days.įor military experts and close watchers of the Ukrainian battlefields, Bakhmut's symbolic importance far outweighs its strategic importance. That fighting was eclipsed in recent months by Ukraine's counteroffensives to the north, in the Kharkiv region, and to the southwest, around Kherson, on the west bank of the Dnieper River.īut the onslaught intensified in December, and now Russian forces have surrounded Bakhmut on three sides, with just one major road still available to Ukraine's beleaguered forces. Since at least August, a motley crew of Russian regular forces and soldiers from the notorious Wagner private mercenary company have been throwing World-War-I-style waves of infantry at Bakhmut, trying to dislodge Ukraine's entrenched defense from the small city in the eastern Donetsk region.
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