The military point 325 | For five months, the private company’s mercenaries have been attacking Ukraine to break through the defenses around Bakhmut and the Soledar suburb, the epicenter of the battle
Evgeny Prigozhin wants to conquer the Bakhmut Tunnels, an extensive network used for salt and gypsum mining but of military value. The Wagner boss asked the media to explain the persistence of the attacks on the Ukrainian site.
For five months, the private company’s mercenaries have been attacking to breach the defenses around Bakhmut and the Soledar suburb, the epicenter of the battle. Militiamen – including ex-convicts who were released on condition they wore uniforms – reservists and regulars occupied enemy lines, leaving hundreds of elements on the field and inflicting equally heavy casualties among the defenders. Swept away by artillery fire, by incursions of small drones throwing grenades into trenches, by a barrage of bombs. The houses were turned into bunkers, the rubble into additional shelter. A difficult bastion to overcome, Prigozhin himself admitted, to justify the very slow advance.
To this reality, the director of the Kremlin’s favorite company added the detail of the galleries. In fact, the ones in the Soledar area are famous, tens of kilometers long, with gigantic rooms that have hosted concerts and events in the past. Now Prigozhin claims their capture would be the icing on the cake – he used those words, according to Portal – of a success. Because they could accommodate soldiers and weapons of all kinds. Then there is the economic side of the target, the mines themselves: it was the Americans who supported it a few days ago, combining it with what Wagner was doing in Africa, where it is involved along with the support of the local armies is in the exploitation of deposits. Even more striking is the comparison with the Azovstal Steelworks in Mariupol, which the Ukrainian resistance held out to the bitter end precisely thanks to the Soviet-era network of tunnels. The fight then ended with the surrender of fighters and civilians who had entrenched themselves in impossible conditions.
The strategy lessons of the always very active and present hierarch indirectly answer the questions about the reason for the company’s great commitment to Bakhmut. Experts have repeatedly offered their scenarios: the eventual capture of the city is successful both at the military and at the symbolic level; the victory can be used internally by Vladimir Putin and Prigozhin to boost the prestige of his contingent, a tool to expand his role on the Moscow stage. After paying a heavy price, Wagner changed tactics: she switched from waves of infantry to using small teams to reduce targets for enemy fire. And the move brought results. The leaked images remain chilling: expanses of bodies between the craters of cannon fire, corpses in the positions, half burned. Tragic balance shared with the Ukrainians and foreigners who are part of the legion born after the invasion.
An interesting character emerges among the supporting cast of the crisis: Abdul Hakim Sishani. Chechens, leaders of a small faction, took part in the guerrilla war in Syria against Assad and took extreme positions, even though he is an opponent of the Islamic State. He falls into the category of the so-called light Qaedists. Researcher Vera Mironova tweeted that Sishani, who was involved in the kidnapping of a Briton and is accused of murder, was released by the Turks last October and has now resurfaced in the Ukrainian theater of operations. A video shows him firing a Swedish anti-tank missile at the Russians. Given his past, Abdul Hakim’s presence could attract the attention of the secret services, but it could also cause problems in Kyiv’s image. Not for the only Chechen among the volunteers who came to the country to do their part in the fight against the invaders. In fact, a battalion of exiles was created, as well as – to remain in the former Soviet territory – units in which there are Belarusians, Georgians, Tatars, Turks from Central Asia. Moscow responds with the troops of Grozny dictator Ramzan Kadyrov, as studious and boastful as Prigozhin when it comes to Putin’s orders.
January 8, 2023 (Change January 8, 2023 | 7:00 p.m.)
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