George Barros, a military analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, believes there are reasons to believe that Ukraine can fight back, because it has not exhausted all its key forces: “I’ve not seen any indications that Ukraine has deployed its reserves in Bakhmut – but Russia has deployed elite elements from its airborne units.” In March, the Russian advance in and around Bakhmut slowed, and the city centre remains in Ukrainian hands – for now. No doubt there is fear despite the bravado, but there is also no significant loss of Ukrainian military cohesion.Ī patient from Bakhmut is treated in a hospital in Kostyantynvika after being injured by shrapnel from Russian shelling on 30 March. Would you not fight for a city in Scotland?” he asks. “It’s important to me, even if I die there,” adds Oleksii. The prevailing view is, as Alim, the tank commander, describes: “We have to hold our land” – meaning it is necessary to resist somewhere. Liudmyla Buimister, an MP who was formerly part of Zelenskiy’s party in the parliament, and since the start of the war a special forces commander, called for a tactical retreat in mid-March to preserve Ukrainian lives, and argued “a lost battle does not mean a lost war”. “I do not look on the Russians as humans,” he says without any emotion, adding: “I just need to destroy to free my people.” Such comments reflect the brutal necessity of the battle in Bakhmut – and the inherently dehumanising nature of war itself.Īs the Russian attacks continue, there is concern in some circles that president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s stubborn insistence on fighting in the city could blunt the offensive potential of its army. There is something chilling about the way Oleksii calmly describes the fighting, justifying his work after he learned about the discovery of mass graves of Ukrainians killed by the Russian occupiers at Bucha, north of Kyiv, early on the war. On the busiest day he says he fired the mortar 417 times, in a battle “that lasted 20 and a half hours”. A drone operator spots the waves of attackers from a distance, and the mortar crews, working at a range of up to 3.5km, target them. There are bullets, harder artillery, aviation, helicopters,” says Oleksii, who was first posted to Bakhmut with the 93rd brigade in August. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Īfter newsletter promotion I do not look on the Russians as humans. For more information see our Privacy Policy. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. Later he walks the Ukrainians through an elaborate drill aimed at taking a nearby crater with two positions of covering fire from above. Assault fighting is a completely different ball game,” the instructor says, with sharp cracks of gunfire continuous in the background. “These soldiers have mostly been defensive fighting in the trenches. At another secret location, infantry soldiers from the frontline 24th brigade are being drilled in assault training by Magnus, a former Swedish army lieutenant with 12 years’ military experience. Preparations for the battle to come are all around. “We don’t have enough of our own,” Alim says – a significant problem when attackers typically seek a 3-to-1 ratio on the battlefield to be confident of a military breakthrough. Ukraine has about half the number of tanks that Russia has – on one estimate 953 against 1,800 – and the commander believes the key difference the western arrivals will make is numbers. Nobody in the tank group knows where they will go next, or when a full counteroffensive might come, although the tanks have just been loaded with munitions. Soldiers from the 214th Battalion prepare tanksįor battle. The design is from the 1960s, although these are not quite so dated – “some of them are 38 years old,” Alim says, meaning the tanks are older than many of the soldiers who drive or crew them. Alim, 58, is the captain who commands the tank unit, made up of Soviet-standard T-64Bs, originally, he emphasises, “made in Kharkiv”, Ukraine’s second city. Most of Ukraine’s military will have to make do without. Yet here, among the trees, a secret location a few kilometres from Bakhmut, the vaunted western weapons are not in evidence. Meanwhile, in the past week 31 Leopard 2 tanks from Germany, Sweden and Portugal have arrived in Ukraine, as well 14 Challenger 2s from the UK. Russia’s 10-month effort to capture Bakhmut, a small industrial city in the Donbas with no strategic value greater than its crossroads, is stumbling. Photograph: Ed Ram/The ObserverĪs spring emerges from Ukraine’s sub-zero winter, talk is turning to Kyiv’s prospective counteroffensive, on which the outcome of war may hinge. ‘We are fighting for our future’, says Danill.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |