Ukraine Says Wagner Is Down to 'Last Shot' in Bakhmut

[Jack the Greater]

Source: New York Times

The Wagner mercenary force, fighting for Russia, has slowly advanced on the eastern city of Bakhmut, but a Ukrainian military official said the group's supply of prisoner forces had been decimated. Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday that Russia's Wagner private military company had been forced to shift to using more of its professional soldiers in the battle for Bakhmut as its supply of prisoner recruits dwindled. The claim suggested that Ukraine, by insisting that it will keep defending Bakhmut, may see an opportunity to hang on long enough there to severely damage Wagner, a highly effective fighting force for Russia. "This is their last shot," Col. Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukraine's eastern group of forces, told Radio Liberty in an interview, referring to the Wagner group.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/03/07/world/russia-ukraine-bakhmut-news

[FakeNoose]

1. Hang in Ukraine! It won't be long now

[Happy Hoosier]

2. This probably why they are sticking it out in Bahkmut.

If they can logistically outlast Wagner, they may be able to launch a counteroffensve and retake territory, leaving Wagner with nothing to show for thousands of losses.

[oldsoftie]

5. I sure hope so. I hope these new tanks can turn the tide like HIMARS did.

Spring is around the corner.

[Warpy]

18. Well, that and the Ukrainians didn't want those Wagner ex prisoners marauding through Ukraine

so they've pretty much eradicated them. The Russian high command have been rationing ammo to all units, and the prisoners are getting less of it than the regular army. The poor bastards never stood a chance.

Ukraine seems to have lured them into the most vicious sort of warfare, house to house in a big city. Russian attempts to raze the city haven't been successful so far. Once they are, the Ukrainians will most likely leave them sitting on the ashes and retake the whole area later, when the ground has firmed up enough to use their new tanks and other gear to break through their lines throughout the region.

Crimea is going to be the toughest nut to crack. My guess is that they'll just make it too expensive to try to keep by repeatedly wrecking Putin's pretty bridges.

[friend of a friend]

20. Ukraine is doing what the Russians did in Stalingrad and other places during WWII.

If Germany wanted the city they had to take it house by house, room by room.

[Warpy]

21. Stalingrad was also more than six times the size of Bahkmut

but their population had largely been evacuated, or it would have been much more horrific than it was. Still, the parallel is there, just a lot more humiliating to the Russians because Bakhmut is a small city of practically no strategic importance, while Stalingrad was a city of nearly half a million with rail hubs and heavy industry. Bakhmut has neither, just a few low hills that the Russians (temporarily) hold.

[niyad]

3. Slava Ukraini! Thank you for the update.

[cilla4progress]

4. Sent them a donation yesterday -

learned about it here from Tomconroy.

https://u24.gov.ua/

Amazing.

[ananda]

6. Thanks. Just also donated.

Slava Ukraine!

[cilla4progress]

7. It's an amazing site,

huh?

[notinkansas]

8. So did I.

And then I passed the information on to other potential donors.

[cilla4progress]

9. Fabulous!

Crowd-funding their defense.

SMDH...

[Martin68]

10. The Post reported that some US military people suggested Bakhmut isn't worth defending.

My take is that Ukraine has established excellent defenses there, and that it was the perfect place to bog Russia down and exact an excruciating toll on their recruits. Putin wants a win of any kind, and has apparently decided that it is Bakhmut or bust. He seems headed towards a bust, but it might be too early to tell. Either way, I doubt the cost is worth it for Russia.

[FredGarvin]

11. Strategically unimportant

UA is smart to lure the Orc's in and kill them at a 7:1 ratio.

The city is destroyed, but eventually Russians will become aware of Putin's failed ego trip.

Matter of time.

[Raster]

15. I'm sure that to the Ukranians, EVERY square inch of the land is worth defending.

Putin and his Russian sycophants can go fuck themselves.

[Martin68]

16. No, the Ukranians are smart. Their goal is victory, which means defeating Russia and getting

all their land back, including Crimea. If giving up Bakhmut would help achieve that end, they wouldn't hesitate. As it is, they will hold onto it as long as they can because it is a killing field for raw Russian recruits.

[getagrip_already]

17. that is one of the two reasons they are still fighting over it.....

Wearing down russias ability to attack is a big reason, but there is another.

Russia's model is to turn what they are attcking to rubble with artillery. They just carpet bomb an area, and when no return fire is possible because there is litterally no place left to hide, they move in.

Then they move on to the next village/town/city and do the same thing.

AFU is holding them in place so they don't start to level the next city, and the next one after that. They are keeping the damage contained to areas already mostly destroyed as long as they can.

[louis-t]

12. Hopefully, China stays out of it.

I'm thinking China would only send arms if they got paid. It doesn't seem like Putin is in a position to pay much.

[getagrip_already]

19. I doubt they would send anything sexy, but lethal aid comes in many forms.

So no tanks or jets or advanced artillery systems similar to himars or precision guided munitions.

But 152mm artillery ammo, rifles, uniforms, boots, body armor, night vision gear, and drones - china could turn these out fast and in volume.

Could putin pay? He has ol and gas. He has mineral resources. He has food.

So payment in kind could be his means to an end.

[roamer65]

22. We are going to see how far their friendship really goes.

[Talitha]

23. "I'm thinking China would only send arms if they got paid."

IIRC, China did consider selling arms to Russia but it got pretty strong opposition. Maybe that was their way of telling Pootie "Gee we'd like to help you, but..."

[wendyb-NC]

13. Slava Ukraini!

[fightforfreedom]

14. It is hard to defeat people who are fighting for country and freedom.