Text from the V Kontakte page of Igor Strelkov
I already briefly expressed my opinion on the completion of the assault on Bakhmut in the "cart." But, reading the strained and joyful comments on VKontakte, I thought that it would be necessary here, too, to calmly and in detail go through this operation, which is now (in order to stick "victorious laurels" on the bald head of "Cook") in every possible way inflate.
"Cook" is a reference to Wagner PMC head Evgeney Prigozhin
So, in a nutshell.
1. After the humiliating and almost catastrophic autumn defeats in the Kharkiv region, first the reduction of the Kherson bridgehead under the onslaught of the enemy, and then its complete abandonment, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, having carried out a partial "under-mobilization" (since its legal status turned out to be completely incomprehensible and it was limited only by conscripting 250-300 thousand men into the army and nothing more), they tried during the winter campaign (gradually turning into spring) to "take revenge" on the Donbass front.
Precisely and only in the Donbass (Donetsk-Lugansk). Because even earlier (in the spring of last year - after the "de-escalation"), the Kremlin adopted (and remains unchanged to this day) a course towards "freezing the conflict through a compromise agreement with partners." And as part of "achieving this agreement" no offensive deep into the so-called. "Ukraines" are not considered at all - no matter what strategic prospects they promise.
Therefore, only "fight in the battle of attrition" in the position of the enemy in the Donbass in the hope that "sooner or later the partners will mature."
The cretinism of this concept and its stillbirth are exceptional. But it is being implemented with the same gloomy-idiotic stubbornness with which they have been trying to implement exactly the same "non-alternative Minsk agreements" for eight years.
Starting from the end of April last year, all offensive operations of the RF Armed Forces were carried out ONLY in the Donbass. Even having occupied part of the Kharkov region along the line of the Seversky Donets - they were not going to advance west of it - they were exclusively driven to the south - to the most heavily fortified Slavic-Kramatorsk agglomeration. With the corresponding result... n. "Ukraines" are not considered at all - no matter what strategic prospects they promise.
2. That is, starting an offensive in the Donbass in the late autumn of last year, our "military strategists" again tried to solve for the political leadership the task that our elderly cretins "drew" in their heads: "Completely liberate the Donbass and transgress to bargaining with Kiev and dear Western partners in order to impose on them the "status quo": Crimea, Donbass and the Corridor to Crimea are behind us, we do not pretend to be more."
As we can see, this task has not been solved even to a small extent in seven months of bloody battles (in many areas - near Avdeevka and Maryinka, for example, almost continuous).
And the fact that "Wagner" - supplied and replenished until the middle of winter this year. "by the category of luxury" - after all (at the cost of almost complete loss of their own infantry), during the months-long meat grinder, they managed to "squeeze out" two towns - Soledar and Bakhmut - this is the only tactical victory. And in connection with the complete failure of the strategic task - the capture of Bakhmut is presented as "the crown of military leadership" and "an epoch-making battle of world-historical significance."
3. Meanwhile - as already noted above - on the whole, the operation ended in a strategic failure of our troops. The enemy has NOT been ousted from the Donbass in all the main directions, in most directions - not moved at all.
During the offensive, the RF Armed Forces used up a lot of trained manpower, exhausted almost to the bottom the stocks of weapons, equipment and ammunition necessary for further offensive operations.
Therefore, Bakhmut's "squeezing" has been given increased attention over the past two months - it was necessary to achieve at least some result "for propaganda" in order to "take a breather" later ... So, like, they won ... And yesterday they stopped immediately at the outskirts of Bakhmut, as soon as they crawled to it - there are no forces to go further ...
4. Now we should wait for the "return move" from the enemy. Similar to the one that was made by the enemy in September, right after our valiant generals "tormented" the tiny town of Peski on the outskirts of Donetsk in a month.
Why do I think the enemy will attack soon? - Yes, precisely because now he has the best chance of success. - The best strike units of the RF Armed Forces are exhausted by many months of battles. The stock of ammunition is minimal. If, for example, the enemy chooses the Donetsk front for attack (for example, in the Mariupol direction), then he will be met by units and subunits badly battered and "thinned" by the transfer of reserves to Bakhmut. And if he decides to attack on the Zaporozhye front, then he may not worry about the stability of his defense in the Slavic-Kramatorsk direction and near Avdievka.
5. And therefore - I consider the victory near Bakhmut:
a) Initially unnecessary ("distraction to an unusable object", I wrote about this many times);
b) Pyrrhic.
Hope to be Wrong.