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The battle for Bakhmut has been going on for more than six months now. It was once a town of about 70,000 people and now there’s not much left. Many of the homes and buildings have been destroyed by Russian artillery and as few as 4,500 citizens are left living there. The territory itself probably isn’t worth fighting for.
But for whatever reason, Bakhmut has become a kind of symbolic battle to both sides. The mercenary Wagner group wants a win so it can claim a measure of progress that Russia’s actual army hasn’t been achieving anywhere else. And the Ukrainians continue to hold on, at least partly, because they have been very successful at grinding down Russian troops in the area. Today the has a story about the Russian tactics which amount to sending waves of former prisoners to their deaths.
The men enlisted to fight for Russia’s Wagner mercenary force — composed of many convicted criminals recruited behind bars and sent to fight in Ukraine in exchange for their freedom — are “dirtier and they don’t have the same military uniforms or flak jackets like regular Russian soldiers,” said Dmytro Vatagin, 48, a Ukrainian soldier stationed in the neighboring village of Ivanivske with the volunteer 24th Battalion.
The mercenary fighters typically move on Ukrainian positions early in the morning, he said, attempting attacks in irregular and unpredictable patterns, seemingly without any clear strategy, which makes them seem “unprepared” for battle.
It is only later in the day that better-trained Russian forces often enter the fray, seeking to make a real advance.
“Wagner and the mobilized are being just thrown like meat” toward the front line, Vatagin said.
But the constant fighting means both sides are increasingly running out of men and ammunition. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group’s boss was once again complaining about the lack of ammunition this weekend.
In a social media post on Sunday, Mr Prigozhin said documents had been signed on 22 February, with ammunition expected to be sent to Bakhmut the next day.
But most had not been shipped, he said, before suggesting it could be deliberate.
