A month ago, Russia still controlled about 75 percent of the eastern city. While troops of Wagner’s private army slowly advanced on two streets towards the western part of the city, the last Ukrainian stronghold, the Ukrainians counterattacked outside the city. Kiev even claims that a Russian brigade suffered heavy losses and fled.
Although the fierce battle for Bachmut has now lasted nine months, the question is how long the Ukrainian units can hold out. In recent months, they have been increasingly driven westward after the Russians have made territorial gains in the inner city. US intelligence estimates that the Russian army has lost more than 20,000 soldiers in the war since December, many of them in Bachmut.
According to the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), one of the world’s most consulted sources on the war, verified images show the Russians advancing west and northwest in the inner city. They’re trying to take residential blocks here. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed on Wednesday that his soldiers had advanced 170 meters. According to him, the Ukrainian military would only control a little more than 2 square kilometers of Bachmut.
Destroyed
While the Ukrainian army is trying with all its might to prevent the fall of Bachmut, they launched several counter-attacks on the outskirts of the city. According to Ukrainian sources, two parts of the 72nd motorized brigade were destroyed. After that, the Ukrainians would have advanced more than 2 kilometers. However, this has not been confirmed by independent sources.
These counter-attacks may have been intended to relieve the pressure on the Ukrainian soldiers in Bachmut. They may also be intended to penetrate further into occupied Russian territory in the Donbas. A Wagner commander claimed that the Russian withdrawal was due to poor communication between the brigade’s leadership and Wagner, who had been responsible for most of the battle for Bachmut for months.
On the run
Prigozhin, who argues with the Russian high command over the lack of military support he would receive, confirmed claims by the Ukrainian army that soldiers of the 72nd Brigade had left their positions. A brigade consists of about three to four thousand soldiers. “Our army is on the run,” Prigozhin said in a statement. “The 72nd Brigade wasted three square miles this morning where I had previously lost five hundred men.”
The brigade is one of the Russian combat units that suffered heavy losses last year. The unit is said to have been dealt heavy blows, particularly during the successful Ukrainian counter-offensive at Kharkiv at the end of the summer. Before the war, Russia had about 180 combat units, which formed the heart of the offensive power of the Russian army. Because the war was so disappointing, Moscow was forced to send all combat units to the battlefield.
