Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Vesti] BAKHMUT IN THE DONETSK REGION IS CALLED THE "UKRAINIAN VERDUN"
Fierce fighting continues near the city of Bakhmut. This town, famous for the extraction of salt and the production of sparkling wine, became the scene of battles because of its position on the front line: control over it will allow developing an offensive against two cities - Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, which are located fifty kilometers to the northwest and today are the mainstay of for the Ukrainian army in the region.
At the same time, several important routes converge in Bakhmut at once, including Gorlovka (which is under the control of the RF Armed Forces).
What is happening in the city, which is called the "Ukrainian Verdun", and how the battles for its outskirts are going on - read in the material Vesti.ua.
OUT OF 16 SCHOOLS, ONLY ONE SURVIVED.
The fighting for Bakhmut began on August 1, when Russian troops launched massive attacks on settlements south and southeast of the city. In the summer, Russian troops were able to advance deep into the Ukrainian positions by about 10 km and entrenched about 13 km from the city. They obviously wanted to take him into a "vice," surrounding him from the north and south. However, by the end of August, the hostilities faded away - only to flare up with renewed vigor by mid-November.
Before the start of the active phase of the war, about 80,000 inhabitants lived in Bakhmut. Today, according to the head of the military administration of the region, Pavel Kirilenko, there are about 12,000 left. The departure was facilitated by the communal collapse, which was established with the start of the fighting: there is no electricity and gas in the city, but the residents are supplied with firewood, which is why the city is a bit like a medieval fortress - with bonfires burning in the yards.
"The destruction in the city is catastrophic. Our house in the private sector on Druzhba (the name of the microdistrict was given by the nearby square. - Auth.) is dilapidated. In the fall, a rocket flew to the neighbors, only walls remained of their house, part of the roof was blown off by a blast wave, - says Andrei, who left Bakhmut with his family at the end of September.
"We did not wait until the incident was repeated, and collected things promptly. But my friend and his family were less fortunate - they lived in a multi-storey building during one of the shelling of the city the shell flew right into the bedroom where his wife was. She died on the spot."
Journalists rarely manage to get to Bakhmut, today the city is de facto under a state of siege (it is possible to enter and leave it through dozens of checkpoints, humanitarian aid is still coming in, shops have not been working for a long time). From the videos that appear on the Internet, one can draw a conclusion about the level of destruction: dozens of private and apartment buildings were damaged, administrative buildings were broken, and the bridge across the Bakhmutovka River, connecting the western part of the city with the eastern one, located closer to the front line, was destroyed at the end of September. Of the 16 city schools, only one survived."
About 60% of the city's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed," Pavel Kirilenko, the military head of the region, estimates the scale. "Even if the houses were not destroyed, they were certainly damaged by shell explosions."
"SECOND VERDUN"
News from the vicinity of Bakhmut speaks of really fierce battles. On Saturday, it became known that the Russian Armed Forces lost a Su-34 fighter-bomber (a 4++ generation aircraft, that is, a completely modern aircraft, and this is at least the seventh Su-34 shot down during the war in Ukraine). The most brutal battles take place "on the ground".
"Bakhmut is a disco 24 by 7... The city is randomly shelled from rocket artillery, simply erasing house after house. At night, there is an active assault, despite the rain, dog cold and knee-deep swamp, " a Ukrainian military man writes on Twitter under a pseudonym " Salt from Bakhmut". - "Winter Campaign" flares up without brakes."
Another military man (pseudonym "Your friend Stus") writes about losses among Russian soldiers. "(November 18. - Auth.), I don’t remember from the moment I arrived in Bakhmut, - he writes on Twitter. - Along one planting (a line of trees along the highway), you can count up to 40 dead bodies mixed with mud. All in one day."
The media sometimes refer to Bakhmut as the "Ukrainian Verdun", referring to one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War - a textbook example of a "war of attrition". It is noteworthy that in this sector of the front, probably for the first time since the beginning of the war, parity in firepower was established - before, Ukrainian artillery always lost in terms of mass and volume of shells.
THE TRUE MEANING OF THE CITY
At the moment, both sides interpret the fighting in their favor. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Army reports on successfully repulsed attacks in the Bakhmut area. The same name is sometimes recalled by President Volodymyr Zelensky in his traditional addresses to the nation.
"I know how difficult it is in Bakhmut, in the Donbass. Guys, hold on, I'm with you. The people are with you," he spoke in support of the fighters.
But in order to gain control over Bakhmut, the Russian Federation needs control over two routes - to the neighboring settlements of Konstantinovka and Seversk. There are fights for these routes. “Bakhmut is not threatened by encirclement. As far as I know, the Armed Forces of Ukraine managed to stabilize the situation south of the city, there, in the suburbs, there are battles,” Ukrainian military expert, reserve colonel Oleg Zhdanov, tells Vesti.ua . and they do not have enough funds, and, having little success in the Bakhmut and Avdeevsky directions, they are trying to develop it.
It is worth understanding why this city is so important for the Russian Federation, as evidenced by the intensity of hostilities here.
According to the Ukrainian military expert, Colonel in the reserve Petr Chernik, there are several reasons: political motives (the "Donetsk Republic", which the Russian Federation has proclaimed as its region, needs to go beyond the administrative borders); the desire of the RF Armed Forces to rehabilitate itself after retreats in the Kharkiv region (in September) and Kherson (November); and applied aspect, military logistics.
"At the moment, the war remains 95% artillery war. And you can’t bring shells to the front line with 7-ton trucks ,” Chernik says.40 km from Bakhmut is the city of Debaltsevo - this is a working railway junction. HIMARS can achieve up to 84 kilometers with high-precision projectiles, and it turns out that this node is under serious threat for the RF Armed Forces - they need to corny move our artillery positions."
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