According to British military experts, invading Russian troops in Ukraine engaged in a disproportionately expensive battle for the city of Bakhmut. The advantage of capturing the city in the Donetsk region of about 70,000 people is not commensurate with the price Moscow is paying for it, according to the Defense Ministry’s daily intelligence update on the war in Ukraine in London today.
Much of Russia’s effort and firepower has been focused on an approximately 15-kilometre sector of a trench front since August, the statement said. The plan is probably to encircle the city. There was little progress in the south.
While taking Bakhmut gave Russia an opportunity to threaten larger urban centers such as the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, it would only be of “limited operational value”, the British added. It is therefore a realistic possibility that the capture of the city has become a political and symbolic goal for the Kremlin.