17 May: New gains secured. Ukrainians conduct a successful assault - Reporting from Ukraine

[TexasTowelie]

My apologies, but the video with Wednesday's updates was posted very late.

====================

Day 448: May 17

Today there is a lot of news from the Bakhmut direction.

After Ukrainians conducted a successful unblocking operation in the Kromove region, Ukrainians once again started to actively use the Khromove highway to deliver supplies directly to the city. Such developments put a spoke in the wheel of the Wagner Group as Ukrainian resistance increased.

As you remember, the Head of the Wagner Group, Prigozhin, announced that he would leave Bakhmut on the 10th of May. The Russian Ministry of Defense pretended to comply with Prigozhin’s demands at first, but on the 9th of May, Prigozhin received a letter from the Ministry saying that if he leaves Bakhmut, he would be immediately tried for treason.

Prigozhin sees that the collapse of the flanks that he predicted is happening and understands that there is a huge risk of being taken into a pocket. His new plan, therefore, became taking Bakhmut within the coming days, no matter the losses, to declare that his detachments completed the job so that he could formally transfer the responsibility for the region to the airborne forces and escape the cauldron.

That is why in the light of increased resistance due to increased supplies, the Wagner forces switched their focus to the outer edge of the city and devoted significant resources to making sure that the supplies are cut. The latest confirmed reports indicate that Russians managed to advance and are only 1 street away from the supply road, which means that it cannot be used anymore.

When it comes to the citadel, the main Ukrainian positions are located in the last block of fortifications. Such developments were inevitable because the recent footage shows that Russians have absolutely demolished the main firing positions that had prevented Russians from entering the citadel for weeks. Several hours ago, Prigozhin reported that his forces will not be able to encircle any Ukrainians and will have to take the rest of Bakhmut through brutal fighting. He once again took a chance to pillory the Chief of Staff Gerasimov for the collapse of the flanks that ensured that there was no possibility of encirclement and no possibility of starving Ukrainians out.

And today, it was confirmed that Ukrainians collapsed the flanks by several more kilometers. After a short regrouping and consolidation of newly gained tactical positions in the forest, Ukrainians launched multiple attacks in the direction of Klischiivka. A lot of combat footage was released by many assault detachments of the clearing and storming operations. The 3rd Assault Brigade showed how they used a tank to undermine Russian defense in a tree line and ended up blowing up the enemy ammo depot.

Another video shows how an assault unit was getting ready to storm the proximate Russian positions in a tree line when the commander suspected that Russians unveiled their positions as the first shell seemed to be too accurate. The immediate reaction saved the whole unit as the next shell blew up their emptied shelter.

A fighter from the 24th Assault Brigade reported that their advances were so successful that they started to have a new problem. Because they penetrated Russian positions so deeply, some Russian forces started shooting at them from the back. He said that they still decided not to retreat, requested support from the Presidential Brigade that operated in the vicinity, and continued to move forward.

Seeing the relentless movement of Ukrainian forces, many Russian troops tried to abandon their positions and retreat along the tree line. Ironically, according to the soldiers on the ground, this actually increased their losses because almost all of them died from artillery fire, and they had better chances of survival by surrendering and becoming prisoners of war. However, as reported by a fighter from the Aidar Battalion, during this storming operation, Russians lost more than 80 troops.

Given the current setting, the next logical step is attacking Klischiivka, and many Ukrainian soldiers already reported about the preparation for the storming operation. The biggest obstacle on the way is an extensive trench network on the hill north of the settlement. But once it is taken, Russians will have to retreat not only from the village in the lowlands but also from the fields back to Opytne.