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DNIPRO, Ukraine — It takes little more than a glance to tell whether Russian fighters advancing on their positions near the hotly contested town of Bakhmut are veteran soldiers or new recruits.
The men fighting for Russia’s Wagner mercenary force — made up of many convicted criminals who were recruited behind bars and sent to Ukraine in exchange for their freedom — are “dirtier and don’t have the same military uniforms or flak jackets as regular Russian soldiers said Dmytro Vatagin, 48, a Ukrainian soldier stationed with the volunteer 24th Battalion in the neighboring village of Ivanivske.
The mercenary fighters typically move toward Ukrainian positions early in the morning, he said, and attempt attacks in erratic and unpredictable patterns, seemingly without a clear strategy, making them appear “unprepared” for battle.
It is only later in the day that Russian forces, often better trained, enter the battle to make a real advance.
“Wagner and the mobilized are simply thrown to the front like meat,” Vatagin said.
Still, their fighting style poses a challenge for the Ukrainian troops. And the waves and waves they sent forward have proved tiring, resulting in staggering casualties on both sides.
“It’s easier to fight the Russian army because you understand what they’re going to do and how to counter them,” Vatagin said Monday in an interview outside the front lines.
While the Russians are still pushing hard from the north, east and south to encircle Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with his top defense and security officials on Monday and announced that Kiev has no intention of City abandon what is almost destroyed.
Despite reports of Ukrainian soldiers complaining that they are fighting in desperate and untenable conditions, and military experts insisting that Bakhmut is of little strategic value to Russia in the long term, Zelenskyy’s office issued a statement saying that Valery Zaluzhny, the Ukrainian commander-in-chief of the military, and Oleksandr Syrsky, the commander of the ground forces who directs operations in the east, had both advocated strengthening and continuing the city’s defenses.
“Assessing the course of the defense operation, the President asked the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny and the Commander of the [eastern group of] Troops Oleksandr Syrsky on further actions towards Bakhmut,” the statement said. “They spoke out in favor of continuing the defensive operation and further strengthening our positions in Bakhmut.”
The fact that Zelenskyy’s office felt compelled to issue the statement highlighted the ongoing investigations in Ukraine and abroad. Western military analysts have warned that fighting to deny Russia a largely symbolic victory could cost Ukraine too much.
Why Russia and Ukraine are fighting over Bakhmut
Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, reported that the meeting expressed support for the city’s continued defense without ruling out a retreat after Russians on Sunday claimed Russia’s Wagner mercenaries had seized areas in the eastern and northern parts of the city.
But when asked about a follow-up to Zelenskyi’s meetings with his top generals and advisers, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief’s staff, Danilov replied: “In order to avoid various insinuations affecting public opinion, the opinion of the members of the [staff] about the defense operation was made public. We continue to defend our country, regardless of all sides of the assessment of the situation.”
The situation is getting worse, according to soldiers in or near Bakhmut.
The fighting is so intense that Vatagin said he and his team at times searched homes for Russian forces, then engaged in hand-to-hand combat with them, and eventually captured some combatants as POWs. “There were fist fights,” he said. “Everyone has their own battle history.”
Vatagin’s team is responsible for maintaining control of the highway connecting Ivanivske with Bakhmut – the road remains vulnerable to Russian artillery attacks but is an important supply route. Since Russian forces control the territory to the north, south and east, the area is regularly shelled. In the past two days, they have lost eight reconnaissance drones and two of their soldiers have been wounded.
“We have received orders to keep the road out of Bakhmut to make sure our boys get everything they need and we will keep that one until they tell us otherwise,” he said.
Some analysts have argued that Ukraine should focus on the more important goal of launching a major offensive in the coming months to drive Russian forces out of occupied territories in eastern and southern Ukraine. Bakhmut, with a pre-war population of about 70,000, was largely reduced to rubble by Russian attacks.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin argued Monday that Ukraine’s withdrawal would not change the broader conflict.
“I think it’s more of a symbolic value than a strategic and operational value,” Austin said during an official visit to Jordan. “The fall of Bakhmut does not necessarily mean that … the Russians have changed the tide of this fight.”
Zelensky calls the battle for the east “painful” as options in Bakhmut dwindle
Michael Kofman, a military analyst at the Center for Naval Analyzes who visited Bakhmut last week, tweeted Monday that Ukraine’s “tenacious defense of Bakhmut” has achieved much by reducing Russian manpower and ammunition.
But Kofman suggested it was time to start thinking about saving troops and resources for a future offensive, noting in a tweet that “strategies can hit points of diminishing returns and … it could hamper the success of a more important operation.”
“From the lack of artillery ammunition, to increasingly contested lines of communication, to a battle of attrition in unfavorable terrain, this battle does not add to Ukraine’s advantages as a military force,” Kofman said.
Russia’s attack on Bakhmut, now in its eighth month, was spearheaded by Wagner, who used the prison recruits as cannon fodder, sending them in waves to weaken Ukrainian resistance or expose their positions.
Wagner’s more battle-hardened and professional troops, many with years of combat experience in Syria or Africa, then move into safe territory. Despite this, Russian advances were extremely slow.
In an interview last month, Syrsky, the commander of ground forces, said Russia has been on the offensive since Jan. 5, with more than 320,000 troops fighting in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian military intelligence, and more are expected to hit the battlefield this spring become .
The Russian offensive “is getting stronger, new directions are being added, but the enemy is attacking all the time, using different tactics in different directions,” Syrsky said.
The most effective of these tactics, according to Syrsky, is Wagner’s wave of small attack groups in the battle for Bakhmut. He and other military personnel in the area described small groups of soldiers storming Ukrainian positions. If they don’t advance, another group will follow, exhausting the Ukrainians over time. Wagner’s goal might be to advance just 300 to 400 meters (330 to 440 yards) at a time, Syrsky said.
“It’s a working tactic,” he said. “It’s based on constant progress, however small, and takes absolutely no human casualties into account.”
Poland-based military analyst Konrad Musika von Rochan Consulting, who also traveled to the city last week, tweeted that there were two Wagners: “One is known for convicts conducting frontal assaults on Ukrainian lines. The other is less known but well equipped… [a] well trained force that is adaptable and flexible.”
Talk to children who left Russia about the war in Ukraine
Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has attempted to use the Bakhmut battle to strengthen his position in Russia and attack Russia’s military leadership.
In recent days, Prigozhin released a series of aggressive statements attacking senior Russian military officials and accusing them of starving his forces of ammunition. “We continue to smash Ukraine’s armed forces near Bakhmut,” Prigozhin said in comments published by his press service on Monday, reiterating his demand for more ammunition from the Russian Defense Ministry.
Unlike President Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin has made numerous trips to the war zone, including a recent video claiming he was in Bakhmut. But he denied on Monday that he has any political ambitions in response to a question after graffiti surfaced in the southwest Russian city of Voronezh urging him to run for president.
“I have no political ambitions,” he said. “Our task is to fight and protect the interests of the Russian Federation.”
O’Grady and Galouchka reported from Dnipro; Dixon from Riga, Latvia; star from Kyiv; and Timsit from London.
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