Although the Ukrainian army was unable to advance because the Russian assault spears had reached the core of Bakhmut city, they learned of yet another negative development.
According to the Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform, on March 4 the Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut were surrounded by the Russian Army; the situation there is very difficult, but the Ukrainian Army is still trying to defend the city “desperately”. Although the Russian Army and Wagner mercenaries have completed the siege of Bakhmut, the Ukrainian Army still has no intention of withdrawing. In that situation, the Ukrainian Army continued to resist tenaciously, fighting fiercely with the Russian coalition around each house and each fortification.
Russia’s Wagner mercenaries , the force in charge of the direct attack on Bakhmut, will not organize a massive frontal attack, but will use “multiple bloom tactics”, using small forces to invade enter a large area. If the Wagner’s thrusts met fierce resistance from the Ukrainian Army, they immediately withdrew from the battlefield and searched for places where the Ukrainian defenses were weak. Finally, attack the areas that are weakly defended by the Ukrainian Army, through the tactics of division and encirclement.
While fighting fiercely in the city of Bakhmut, the Russian coalition opened breakthroughs from the northwest and southwest of Bakhmut, the U-circle gradually turned into a C-ring, the encirclement was closed and the Ukrainian army only had It is possible to withdraw through several trails, off through the muddy fields to the west of the city. Russian artillery covered all roads, including all supply lines of the Ukrainian Army in the city of Bakhmut. To avoid the Russian artillery attack, the Ukrainian Army could only deliver supplies at night in the form of small units.
In the midst of hot battlefield news, Ukraine received worse news, Ukraine’s ammunition weapons were almost exhausted. The Ukrainian army was almost out of ammunition and weapons to reinforce the defenders on the Bakhmut battlefield. The war in Ukraine has been going on for more than a year, and all Ukraine’s ammunition is now supplied by NATO, led by the United States. According to the “Washington Post” of the US, statistics of senior NATO officials in Ukraine show that the Ukrainian Army fires an average of 6,500 shells per day. Their 3 days of ammunition consumption is equivalent to the amount of ammunition produced by American factories in a month. Since the start of the Ukraine war, the total amount of aid from the US and NATO has reached nearly 200 billion USD. The Ukraine battlefield consumes too much, the US can not provide, 30 NATO member countries also complain. Many sources believe that up to a third of arms and ammunition aid to Ukraine, was destroyed or damaged by Russia before reaching the battlefield.
According to the New York Times, when the Ukrainian president met the US president in Kiev, the US and NATO were asked to supply Ukraine with about 250,000 rounds of artillery a month, in order to gain advantage on the battlefield with Russian artillery. Not only did Ukraine want more than ammunition, Kiev also asked for German Leopard 2 tanks, M1A2 Abram tanks and American F-16 fighter jets. The US has clearly refused and will not provide F-16 fighters for the time being. Now the Russian Army has surrounded Bakhmut and the Ukrainian Army has started to withdraw. At this critical moment of the war, the lack of weapons and ammunition in the Ukrainian Army will not only affect the morale of the Ukrainian soldiers, but it will affect the combat effectiveness of the Ukrainian soldiers.
The great difficulties of the Ukrainian Army are not over yet, according to the German publication Bild, citing sources in the Ukrainian government as saying the “difference in opinion” on the situation in Bakhmut, made Ukrainian President Zelensky upset with the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Valery Zaluzhny. A few weeks ago, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny insisted that the Ukrainian Army withdraw from the city of Bakhmut “for tactical reasons”; but President Zelensky ordered the defense of Bakhmut to continue “at all costs”.
The German newspaper quoted one of the Ukrainian military analysts as saying that many members of the Ukrainian Army did not understand why the Kiev leadership continued the defense in Bakhmut? They see no strategic benefit to this and do not understand why they were ordered to “kill themselves”, when they were surrounded by Russian troops? The field commanders of the Ukrainian Army in Bakhmut said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces Command should have ordered the withdrawal from Bakhmut long ago and considered it a disaster if Ukrainian forces were left in Bakhmut. completely surrounded. Earlier, The Wall Street Journal of the US reported that the Ukrainian Army has lost its best-trained units in the Bakhmut battlefield in the past few months. The most combat-ready units of the Ukrainian Army suffered heavy losses at Bakhmut; even many units lost combat power completely.
