Inside the ‘meat grinder’: Russian and Ukrainian losses mount in Bakhmut | 24CA News
Warning: This story incorporates a graphic picture
Both sides name it a “meat grinder,” with scores of lifeless troopers, a wrecked cityscape and solely individuals with nowhere to run nonetheless residing there. Why are so many Russians and Ukrainians dying for Bakhmut?
For nearly six months, the Eastern Ukrainian metropolis has been the positioning of intense, grinding trench warfare that reminds authorities and analysts of the First World War.
“Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life left,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated late Monday of the scene round Bakhmut and close by Soledar, each in Donetsk province. “The whole land near Soledar is covered with the corpses of the occupiers and scars from the strikes.
“This is what insanity seems to be like.”
Bakhmut has some strategic value, but military analysts say it is out of balance with the battle’s attrition and devastation. Instead, Ukraine, Russia and the mercenary Wagner Group are fighting for the political victories and symbolic worth Bakhmut might bring.
Battlefield footage suggests intense fighting for relatively modest stretches of ground, with the front line edging back and forth.
The fighting is “essentially the most intense on all the entrance line,” said Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov.
“So many stay on the battlefield … both lifeless or wounded,” he said on YouTube. “They assault our positions in waves, however the wounded as a rule die the place they lie, both from publicity as it is rather chilly or from blood loss.”
Ukrainian troops fighting in Bakhmut and Soledar say attacks come in waves of small groups, each with no more than 15 soldiers.
The first wave is usually wiped out, said Taras Berezovets, a Ukrainian journalist, political commentator and officer in the Ukrainian army. He said pro-Russian forces would retreat after defeat and leave white ribbons for the next wave to follow.
But while Ukrainian authorities focus on Russian losses, Ukrainian deaths and injuries pile up as well.
Wounded soldiers arrive around the clock for emergency treatment at a Ukrainian field hospital located near the front line around Bakhmut.
Medics there fought for 30 minutes on Monday to save one soldier, but his injuries were too severe.
Another had a head injury after shrapnel pierced his helmet. Medics quickly got him stable enough to transfer him to a military hospital for further treatment.
“We combat to the top to avoid wasting a life,” said surgeon Dr. Kostnyantyn Vasylkevich. “Of course, it hurts when it isn’t potential to avoid wasting them.”
Why they fight
This fighting has been going on since August. Why do both sides care so much about this particular city?
The city has been Moscow’s “fundamental offensive effort” for months despite its “restricted operational worth,” Britain’s Ministry of Defence tweeted in December.
Taking Bakhmut would potentially allow Russia to threaten larger urban areas — Kramatorsk and Sloviansk — but the battle has been “disproportionately pricey relative to those potential positive aspects,” the ministry said.
“There is a practical risk that Bakhmut’s seize has develop into primarily a symbolic, political goal for Russia.”
The ministry said Tuesday that Russian troops and Wagner Group mercenaries were probably now in control of Soledar after four days of advances.
If confirmed, it would be Russia’s most substantial gain since last August.
Moscow’s desire for the win is underscored by the presence of the Wagner Group, a private Russian paramilitary organization run by an ally of President Vladimir Putin.
Its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on Tuesday, “Wagner items took management of all the territory of Soledar. A cauldron has been fashioned within the centre of town by which city preventing is happening.”
But Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar on Tuesday evening said that fighting for the eastern salt mining town was still raging.
“The enemy disregards the heavy losses of its personnel and continues to storm actively,” she said. “The approaches to our positions are merely strewn with the our bodies of lifeless enemy fighters. Our fighters are bravely holding the defence.”
Zelenskyy and the military command did not mention control of Soledar on Tuesday evening. Zelenskyy repeated his call for more Western weapons, saying Russia was gathering its forces to intensify its campaign — which began with its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Prigozhin’s men include Russian prisoners, freed under a deal that will hand them a pardon if they fight for six months. But if they join up and desert, they face execution.
In November, independent Russian news outlet Mediazona reported that publicly available data from Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service showed the overall prison population shrank by more than 23,000 people in September and October, suggesting many convicts had taken up Prigozhin’s offer.
Prigozhin would welcome the political victory a win would bring him in Moscow. Meanwhile, the U.S. says Prigozhin wants control of the salt and gypsum from the mines.
For Ukraine, say experts, the importance of holding Bakhmut — aside from its value as a symbol of Ukrainian resistance — is partly about sustaining support from Western countries on whose arms supplies Ukraine’s war effort is dependent.
With Ukraine having scored a string of battlefield successes, even a relatively insignificant defeat risks creating the perception of stalemate, which could make Western countries less willing to extend support for Kyiv amid their own mounting economic problems stemming from the war.
‘Our town used to be so beautiful’
Meanwhile, the scant few ordinary citizens who remain in the city try to survive.
Bakhmut was home to roughly 70,000 people before the war, but even months ago the population was estimated at closer to 10,000.
Intense shelling has left 60 per cent of the city in ruins, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said last week.
Like Mariupol and other contested cities, Bakhmut endured a long siege without water and power.
“People who left moved to stick with their youngsters or brothers and sisters. They had locations to go,” resident Ilona Ierhilieieva said in October as she mixed soup on an open fire by the side of the road. “But as for us, we do not have a spot to go. That’s why we’re right here.”
Last week, a drive around Bakhmut by Reuters revealed the scars of months of bombardment, from smashed storefronts to mangled workshops and wrecked businesses.
Volunteers like Vasyl Liesin, 30, help to maintain “invincibility centres,” set up to provide electricity, heat, water, internet service, mobile phone connections and medicines free of charge as Russian attacks devastate basic civilian infrastructure.
The centres may demonstrate spirit, but they are far from invulnerable.
“When we visited one other invincibility level yesterday for 15, 20 minutes, a rocket hit us. It broken a volunteer car, killed one individual, and injured 4,” said Liesin, who was wearing a helmet and a flak jacket.
“Volunteers have been injured, and one native Bakhmut volunteer misplaced a limb and was evacuated. I hope that individuals have been of their protecting gear, however the state of affairs is unclear. We know they have been significantly injured.”
Olha, 75, smartly dressed and wearing lipstick, reminisced as she carried shopping bags along a Bahkmut street last week.
“Dear God, our city was so stunning,” she said.
“There have been roses in every single place, flowers,” she added, hardly flinching at the sound of a distant boom.
Russia has had few army victories in Ukraine to rejoice currently, however it could be on the verge of 1. After days of intense preventing, video on social media seems to indicate Russian troopers within the centre of Soledar, a strategic city within the japanese Donbas area.
