Fall of Ukrainian city of Bakhmut would not mean a strategic win for Russia: Pentagon

The battle for Bakhmut has been going on for months, but according to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a Russian victory over the city of Donetsk would not prove strategically beneficial to Moscow.

“I think it has more of a symbolic value than a strategic and operational value,” Austin told reporters from Jordan on Monday. “The fall of Bakhmut will not mean that the Russians have turned the tide of this battle.”

Austin said he would not predict whether Moscow would be able to successfully take Bakhmut, which both the Ukrainian and Russian forces have said is a brutal battle.

Ukrainian soldiers light a fire with gunpowder to warm up near the town of Bakhmut in the region of Donbass, March 5, 2023. (Eris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images)

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Austin, referring to both Russian military recruits and Wagner, said, “What I see on a daily basis is that the Russians continue to put in a lot of undertrained and sick soldiers, and those soldiers are running out very quickly.” Are.” The force was withdrawn from the Russian penal system last year.

Ukrainian officials have said that the battle for Bakhmut has been their toughest ever as Russia continues to send men into the Donetsk region despite significant losses.

Ukrainian infantrymen take cover in a partially dug trench along the front line, outside Bakhmut, Ukraine, March 5, 2023. (John Moore / Getty Images)

“The enemy, regardless of losses, does not stop attacking the city of Bakhmut and its surroundings,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces said on Monday.

It is not clear how many soldiers have been killed fighting over Bakhmut, which has been completely decimated after more than four months of brutal ground and air combat, with some Ukrainian troops last week describing it as the town “on fire”. as described.

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Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has led the charge to the city and attempted to employ similar tactics when it besieged the city and took Soledor earlier this year.

A Ukrainian armored personnel carrier outside Bakhmut in the Donetsk region on March 3, 2023. (ANATOLY STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images)

Austin attributed any Russian advances in the area to the mercenaries but suggested that the perceived divisions between Wagner and the Russian army were increasingly apparent when he said, “There are cracks.”

“I would say that the Wagner forces have been slightly more effective than the Russian forces,” he told reporters. “Having said that, we have not seen exemplary performance from the Russian military.”

Defense officials have long argued that Russia’s efforts to take Bakhmut do not hold any strategic advantage with regard to the amount of resources it would receive, given its strategic location along the Ukrainian border. Thrown in just one area.

A Ukrainian armored personnel carrier at Bakhmut in the Donetsk region on March 3, 2023. (ANATOLY STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images)

Just after intense fighting began in the area, Britain’s Ministry of Defense reported in early December that the battle for Bakhmut had already become “disproportionately costly” for Russia. [the] potential benefits.”

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“Russia has prioritized Bakhmut as its main offensive effort from early August 2022,” the ministry said during an intelligence update. “Capturing the city would be of limited operational value.

“There is a real possibility that the capture of Bakhmut has become primarily a symbolic, political objective for Russia,” the ministry argued three months ago.