FROM OUR REPORTER
CHASIV YAR – What if Bakhmut became Russia’s Waterloo? A few days seemed almost unthinkable. Between last Thursday and Friday, what has now become the longest and bloodiest battle of the entire war seemed to have been practically won by the Russians, mainly thanks to the concerted effort of the Wagner mercenaries on behalf of their commander-in-chief, the oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was once known as “Putin’s cook” and now flaunting his “military merits” is aiming for a place in the sun at the top of the Kremlin.
And yet, for at least two days, the situation has changed again in favor of the Ukrainians. Bakhmut had over 70,000 inhabitants before the war, less than 5,000 remain, its strategic importance is negligible, but since last autumn it has become a symbol of Donbass tug-of-war. Well-trained units of special corps, accompanied by armored units, were sent on the direct orders of the Chief of the General Staff, General Valery Zaluzhny, to reopen lines of communication with the approximately 3,000 soldiers holed up in the besieged city: the delivery of ammunition, fuel and food began flow from behind again and with them the hopes of being able to win.
If the old adage that attack is the best form of defense is true, the Ukrainians are capitalizing on it. Yesterday morning we ourselves encountered some infantry units stationed in their Soviet-era Mtlb armored personnel carriers on the outskirts of Chasiv Yar, less than ten kilometers west of Bakhmut. “We have orders to advance, there is no sign of retreat,” say 30-year-old Denis and Gennady, 25, who are considered veterans by their comrades because they were drafted a year ago. This invalidates the hypothesis of the last few days that the reinforcements could serve to ensure an orderly exit from Bakhmut. President Zelensky himself reiterated yesterday after a meeting with Zaluzhny that the “resistance continues”.
The most convincing signal that the tide of battle is changing comes from Prigozhin, who has returned to accuse the Russian high command of “betraying” Wagner by denying promised shipments of ammunition. “Wagner’s departure from Bakhmut could bring about the Russian collapse along the entire front,” he fears, revealing the tensions at the head of the military machine in Moscow, where the generals of the regular army look with barely concealed anger when there is no overt hostility towards the Ambitions of this “upstart” promoting himself, exploiting his militiamen and personal connections with Putin. His mood swings are staggering: four days ago he publicly called on Zelensky to withdraw his troops to prevent them being “crushed in Wagner’s pincers,” and now he’s openly speaking of Russia’s possible defeat, as if to sneak out and himself each responsibility put to the General Staff. Then, in the evening, he revealed that his right-hand man, who was sent to Moscow for reinforcements, hadn’t even arrived.
But on the ground the situation appears complicated by the intense duels between the two armies with artillery, mortars and rockets of all kinds. Several civilians are evacuating Chasiv Yar and surrounding villages, the roads west of Bakhmut are clogged with Ukrainian men and vehicles waiting to to be deployed at the front. Anti-aircraft sirens in all urban centers of Donbass sound continuously. A video published on the network, in which a cold-blooded soldier is machine-gunned and who, instead of surrendering, shouts “Honour to Ukraine”, has become another proof of the cruelty of the “Russian ogres”.