BACKHMUT, Ukraine — For nearly an hour, the stream of Ukrainian casualties in the eastern city of Bakhmut seemed to have no end: Ambulances, armored personnel carriers and private vehicles one by one shouted stop and disperse the wounded in front of the city’s only military hospital.
A soldier supported by his comrades, his face covered in meat, entered the main gate. The dark blue stretcher waiting for him was one of the stretchers still covered in blood.
By around noon on Friday, doctors had counted 50 wounded, many of them soldiers. The day before was even worse: 240 people walked through the hospital doors with everything from gunshot wounds to shrapnel and concussion injuries.
“They came in waves – 10, 10, 5, 10,” said Parus, one of the Ukrainian doctors at the hospital, as artillery crackled overhead and machine gunfire echoed from surrounding buildings. around. “Over the past few days, the Russians have been trying to come forward stronger.”
In the nine months since the Russian invasion, Ukraine has celebrated major victories, breaking the siege of the capital Kyiv and driving Russian troops out of the Kharkiv area and the port city of Kherson. But Bakhmut, in the Donbas region of Ukraine, has become a whirlpool of destruction for the militaries of the two countries. Over the months, they have unleashed massive amounts of troops and equipment into the battle here as the Russians make desperate attempts to capture the city and the Ukrainians to hold it.
The results were almost dire. This city that once had a population of about 70,000 is slowly being divided. And now, according to Ukrainian citizens and soldiers, the bombardment in and around Bakhmut is of unprecedented intensity. Buildings that had been destroyed before were demolished again. The front line, on the outskirts of the city, looks like a muddy moon, or a World War I scene. At night, residents can hear Russian jets roaring in the sky.
According to soldiers, local residents and a US defense official, in recent days, Ukraine has sent a series of reinforcements to Bakhmut, including Special Forces and territorial defense fighters. less trained.
The Russians continued Throwing lineup from Wagner Corporation, a notorious paramilitary organization with direct ties to the Kremlin, in the Ukrainian trenches. However, they are now supported by a new batch of senior Russian military forces redeployed from the Kherson front, according to US defense officials and Ukrainian soldiers.
The intensity of Russia’s attempts to capture the city has confounded military analysts. Elsewhere along their 600-mile front, the Russians mainly wintered tunnels to entrench and conserve resources.
In the summer, after Russian forces captured the neighboring province of Luhansk, capturing Bakhmut might seem like a natural step forward in Russia’s eastern conquest campaign – a step toward two more important cities than Russia. Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. But now, analysts say, with the deterioration of Russian forces and ammunition shortages following a series of setbacks, that goal seems unattainable, especially after they lost their place. stand in the northeast.
“The Russian military is still dealing with unrealistic political demands to show progress,” said Michael Kofman, director of Russia studies at CNA, a think tank in Arlington, Va. , they are unlikely to succeed, because again the Russian military seems to be feeding the units piecemeal without adequate support.”
In recent weeks, Moscow’s need for any kind of military victory has made itself difficult to find elsewhere along the front lines. Small villages near the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk have become hot spots. But as temperatures plummeted, Bakhmut quickly evolved into Moscow’s main effort, where a slew of its forces – including the recently mobilized army, according to Ukrainian soldiers – were trying to strangle city from the east and south.
The Russian strategy in Bakhmut is reminiscent of the capture of the eastern cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in June. There, the Russian military relied on superior artillery fire to overpower Ukrainian forces and gain ground. But the Ukrainian forces they faced then were short of both shells and Western-supplied artillery – which was no longer necessary, especially in Bakhmut.
“In my six months in Bakhmut, I have never seen our artillery work like this,” said a Ukrainian soldier in the city, referring to the amount of ammunition Ukraine had fired. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
One of the Pentagon’s constant concerns is that the Ukrainians are firing ammunition at an unsustainable rate – especially in places like Bakhmut – under the mistaken assumption that the West’s supply of weapons is inexhaustible. for example, said the unnamed US defense official. to discuss sensitive information.
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When Bakhmut – under constant Russian shelling since July – turned into a battle of attrition, its strategic significance also changed. Even if Russia’s hopes of territorial expansion here dwindle, it could still turn the city into a resource-intensive black hole for Kiev, withdraw troops from other Ukrainian priorities, possibly the possibility of including future attacks.
“Battles like Bakhmut consume forces that could be used elsewhere,” Kofman said, adding that Russian forces are using people they deem “sacrifice.” but even so, they couldn’t waste that much artillery.
The Ukrainian forces holding Bakhmut are composed of several units, including the 93rd Mechanized Brigade and the 58th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, elite units have been destroyed. tired of constant Russian attacks.
Troops from other brigades have arrived in recent weeks to plug holes in the lines and reinforce formations floundering after heavy casualties. Ukrainian soldiers say that despite the high number of Ukrainians injured and killed, the Russians that are attacking are suffering far worse consequences, as their apparent attacks are bombed by artillery. and machine gun cut off.
US defense officials estimate that Russia and Ukraine have each about 100,000 people were injured and died during the war, although those numbers cannot be verified, the number of casualties in Bakhmut was even higher.
Colder temperatures and muddy trenches also cause injuries to both sides. Pro-Russian military bloggers have complained about the lack of cold-resistant clothing, especially among the newly mobilized forces. And doctors at Bakhmut hospital say hypothermia and sores, a painful skin condition caused by prolonged immersion in cold water, are common among Ukrainian forces, despite prompt treatment. and often on the front lines.
“Soldiers are getting everything they need – thermals, winter coats, everything. But it doesn’t solve everything,” said Ihor, a doctor at the hospital, who gave his name only for security reasons. “In the rain for two, three days, in the trenches – you understand.”
On Friday, Ukrainian soldiers who had just left the ranks gathered in front of the hospital, their faces, uniforms and weapons covered in mud, their pants soaking wet from the recent rain. Medics from the 58th Brigade flinched as a barrage of shells struck nearby but did little to react when the second shell came so close that it cracked and shattered nearby windows: They were intends to move his patient.
Much of the eastern part of the city – around a once famous winery – is the gray zone between the Russian and Ukrainian locations. To its south, the village of Optyne is heavily disputed.
A mobilized Russian soldier “just took a rifle and went straight down like in Soviet times,” said another Ukrainian medic who followed the Smile sign. “He was killed and the next one appeared the same way.”
Recent advances on the battlefield around Bakhmut are measured in yards, not miles. Every day is a kaleidoscope of Russian and Ukrainian forces advancing or retreating, often resulting in minimal gains at bloody costs.
On Friday, a Ukrainian soldier said his unit was retreating when a mortar shot broke its leg, while another unit elsewhere in Bakhmut was attacking a Russian position.
Ayrat, a soldier from the 71st Brigade, was moving towards the Russian trenches when he was wounded in both legs by a grenade, dropped by a drone or fired by a Russian grenade launcher .
“We launched an attack,” he said, voice hoarse in the dimly lit hospital lobby and wrapped in a foil survival blanket. His unit was approaching where the Russians were “entrenched”.
“My comrades are alive,” he said, wincing in pain. “Do you have any medicine?”
Ivan Nechepurenko Contribution report from Tbilisi, Georgia.
