– It is terrible there. The ground is black as asphalt. Everything is broken. It’s the same everywhere, a Ukrainian soldier tells the AFP news agency. The soldier talks about Bakhmut. The AFP meets him in a covert room a kilometer from the front line. It is much safer there. They are a thousand short meters from what can be called “hell on earth”. FIRE POWER: Behind the two front lines are large amounts of artillery. It is the artillery that takes the most lives in Bakhmut. Photo: Libkos / AP It is the Ukrainian public debater Olena Halushka who uses this description. She writes in a message on Twitter that there are hundreds of wounded every single day. BLOOD: The battles at Bakhmut cost many lives every day. Photo: Halushka/Twitter/UKRMOD The New York Times has been to the military hospital in Bakhmut. The management at the hospital says that 240 wounded arrived on Thursday last week. The news agency Reuters writes that hundreds of soldiers probably also lose their lives every day. ONE OF MANY: A wounded Ukrainian soldier arrives at the military hospital in Bakhmut. Photo: Libkos / AP Destroys everything – There is extensive use of artillery. It causes heavy losses on both sides. All infrastructure is destroyed, even the forest is razed, says military expert Geir Hågen Karlsen at the Staff School. Photos and video from the front show landscapes dominated by shell craters. The reason is messed up. Large areas have only stumps of trees left. Everything is muddy. The bottom of the trenches is filled with water. Rotting corpses lie right next to the Ukrainian positions. No one picks them up. Video captured by drones shows a gray and brown landscape. A chaotic landscape with remnants of nature, buildings, materials, vehicles and people. The dead are almost one with the earth. It is as if they are about to turn to earth. LIKE THE FIRST WORLD WAR: In social media, the conditions at Bakhmut are compared to the trenches during parts of the First World War. Photo: ST. Javelin/Twitter/Imperial War Museum Russian progress The Ukrainians have lost ground at Bakhmut during the last week. Russian forces claimed on Wednesday to have taken control of three villages near Bakhmut. It is noticed internationally. Since this summer, the Russians have carried out dozens of attacks. They have mostly led to nothing but death and more destruction. The front line is the same the next day. NOT JUST THE FRONT LINE: This photo of the city of Bakhmut was taken on October 24. The city itself is also shelled. Photo: DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP – This is where we see the madness of the Russian military leadership best. Day after day, month after month, they send people to their deaths, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky said in October. Geir Hågen Karlsen believes that the Russian soldiers are poorly led and poorly coordinated. – In a number of posts in Russian social media, soldiers complain that they are again and again thrown into pointless attacks, says Karlsen. Positional war The city of Bakhmut is located in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. Militarily, it is not considered an important city. – There is a railway line and some roads there, so it is a tactical target, says military expert Palle Ydstebø at the War College. If the Ukrainians lose control of Bakhmut, the Russians can move forward. The terrain is nevertheless such that they will quickly encounter new Ukrainian positions. – Bakhmut may have acquired a political significance. The battles here have become so famous that the Russians feel they must win. For the Ukrainians, it provides opportunities to run more and more Russian departments through the meat grinder, says Ydstebø. DIFFICULT TERRAIN: A topographical map with Bakhmut marked. Directly to the west of the city is the ridge that the Ukrainians can use to place positions. Photo: Ukraine topographic map Wagner The reports indicate that the Wagner group is fighting on the Russian side. Wagner is a private military organization. Among other things, it recruits from prisons. Since this summer, Wagner has played a significant role in Bakhmut. In recent weeks, several regular Russian soldiers are said to have arrived. There are troops that used to be at Kherson. The battle has become more intense after the new soldiers came to Bakhmut. The main purpose of the mercenaries from the Wagner Group is to destroy what they can of the Ukrainian military force, according to the Wagner Group’s leader. – The Ukrainian army is well prepared and offers worthy resistance, writes Yevgeny Prigozhin in a statement. The statement has been published via Prigozhin’s company Concord and reproduced by the AFP news agency. Prigozhin is one of President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies. – Our goal is not Bakhmut in itself, but to reduce the Ukrainian army and its fighting ability, which in turn has a positive effect elsewhere. That is why this operation has been dubbed the “Bakhmut meat grinder”, writes Prigozhin according to AFP. Ukrainian authorities claim there is no imminent danger of Bakhmut falling.
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The battles in Bakhmut are described as “hell on earth” – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
