Here’s an update on the strategic (or unimportant, depending what day it is) town of Bakhmut.
In May of last year I wrote:
Ultimately, I still don’t understand Zelensky’s strategy of deliberately pouring irreplaceable soldiers into a three-sided cauldron. Donbass isn’t friendly territory by any stretch of the imagination, and whatever benefits there are to holding it couldn’t possibly justify the losses. Some readers on my blog have made the claim that it is a four-sided cauldron and Ukrainian troops simply can’t escape. No, this is obviously not true. If it was true, Ukrainians wouldn’t be able to send new weapons there, obviously. If they can get more men and equipment into the cauldron, they could also get them out. So why don’t they?
I searched for historical to compare this to, and the best I could find was the Battle of Verdun in WWI. Imagine this battle, but with the Russians as the Germans, and the Ukrainians as the French. Verdun was of vital cultural and morale significance to the French, so the Germans believed they could turn it into a “blood pump.” They would attack, quickly seize advantageous positions for artillery, and provoke the French into suffering huge losses in failed counterattacks while suffering very few losses themselves.
Even all these months later, that technique doesn’t seem to have changed. Here’s today’s map from LiveUA:
Here’s a drone’s eye view of what it’s like trying to get in or out of town:
And yes, this is another video on my now-active YouTube channel, which I encourage everyone to follow if you haven’t already.
Meanwhile, it appears that church property like icons are making their way out of the country into Poland, where they’re sold on the dark web.
On a more positive note, last week I took and passed the exam for a Level 2 Comprehensive Russian as a Foreign Language certificate. This took six months of studying and is a prerequisite for applying for a residence permit. So kind of a big deal. And yes, it’s spelled “Иэн” not “Ян.”
Special thanks to the most recent donations to my Buy Me a Coffee page:
Qolotlh Kernow
Askar Khamidov
Longtrail
I appreciate you all!
Ian Kummer
Support my work by making a contribution through Boosty
All text in Reading Junkie posts are free to share or republish without permission, and I highly encourage my fellow bloggers to do so. Please be courteous and link back to the original.
I now have a new YouTube channel that I will use to upload videos from my travels around Russia. Expect new content there soon. Please give me a follow here.
Also feel free to connect with me on Quora (I sometimes share unique articles there).
Cauldrons were there even back in 2014…(
I read on sonar21.com a reference to Sun Tsu where the ancient Chinese General wrote in his book On War to leave the enemy a route of escape so I suspect it seems intentional. There are several 3 sided cauldrons along the line of contact.
Weeb Union Updates latest video shows a large buildup of men and equipment assembling outside Bachmut and Soledar. He also mentioned Russian soldiers rotated out are requesting to join the “Musicians” of Wagner PMC so they can add experience to the ranks and earn more money.
The Telegraphed Spring Offensive is being prepared as Marder Assault Vehicles and a few Leopard tanks have been delivered. Meanwhile the meat grinder keeps grinding.
Congratulations on passing your exam Ian!
I don’t think closing up the fourth side is possible, even if they wanted to. Supposedly there are 80,000 Ukrainian troops in the surrounding areas.
A lot of people speculate that not closing the cauldron is done on purpose. Like “b” from Moon of Alabama, Brian Berletic from New Atlas etc (including my humble self 🙂 ). On a related note, you wrote about PMCs lately. Wagner’s involvement here was strange to me. Who is their paymaster? The Russian state? Why exactly here? Furthermore, they seem to be too well equipped. They have attack helicopters, modern artillery, ground attack aircraft, at least it is what’s reported about them. I even noticed once that they had a very recent weapon, can’t remember what, I think it was the T72B3M. So my guess is that Wagner is the “plausible deniability” branch of the Russian Armed Forces. Ie. they are deployed when Russia doesn’t want an official military intervention for some reason. And their current deployment in the Donbass is more like the extensive training and a good way to convert some convicts with light sentences to volunteers.
OFF: “Ian” is an enigma to me. In Australia they pronounce it “eyan”.
In Ukraine specifically, yes, I assume the Russian state is footing most or all of the bill for Wagner and other PMCs. Like I said in that post, I don’t believe the Telegram channels claiming that Wagner has ground attack aircraft. I mean, I guess it’s remotely possible, just extremely unlikely. Why give a corporation advanced aircraft? What possible benefit would that bring?
Perhaps because this is a corporation in name only, a facade. But I’m guessing here, of course. Anyway, there was an occasion when Yevgeniy Prigozhin flew over Artyomovsk in an ostensibly Wagner owned SU25. Okay, Prigozhin looks more like a professional showman at this point, and this action might’ve been a show.