An economic advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that Ukrainian forces might pull out of the eastern city of Bakhmut, where they have been taking heavy losses.
“Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options. So far, they’ve held the city, but if need be, they will strategically pull back,” Alexander Rodnyansky told CNN. “We’re not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing.”
Rodnyansky’s comments came after Zelensky said the situation in Bakhmut is getting “more and more difficult.” While the Ukrainians are signaling a possible withdrawal, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary outfit Wagner Group, said there were still no signs of a Ukrainian pull-out.
“The Ukrainian army is deploying additional troops and is doing what it can to retain control of the city,” Prigozhin said on Wednesday. “Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are offering fierce resistance, and the fighting is getting increasingly bloody by day.”
Russian and Ukrainian forces have been fighting over Bakhmut for about eight months. Since mid-January, Russian forces have been making gains in the area and are slowly encircling Bakhmut.
Ukraine has been taking enormous casualties defending Bakhmut, a city with a pre-war population of about 70,000. A former American Marine fighting in Ukraine told ABC News last week that the average lifespan of a Ukrainian soldier on the frontlines in Bakhmut is only four hours, and called the area a “meat grinder.”
Given how much bull Schiff (propoganda) we are being fed, to have the comic admit they are on the cusp of losing the city, it won’t be long where they admit this war that’s been going on since 2014 in some form is not going their way and their want of 1996 borders isn’t happening.
Time for Biden to ship more arms/money in…..
Yeah, there was that CNN article about the war pretty much being won by Ukraine any day now…
It’s funny, but if we just believe the opposite of most of the shit authorities are feeding us, we’d have a much more accurate idea of what is going on.
This is huge. Bakhmut is the southern end of a super-strong line of defense that has been built up since 2014. The top of the line is Seviersk where AFU successfully fought LPR/DPR Militia and the Wagner Group forces to a standstill last Spring. Until now this was a formidable barrier but beyond this line is flat country all the way to the Dneiper River which is ideal for fast moving armoured attacks. If and/or once this line falls there is very little natural or prepared defenses for the AFU to stop any further attacks. If Kiev pulls back all the way to the Dneiper River, which leaves the Donbas to Russian/Allied forces, then then I can see Russia ceasing hostilities and relying on peace talks to resolve the perceived NATO threat from the Ukraine and peace guarantees from both sides.
After Bakhmut, Russian army will go to Kramatorsk/Slavyansk. Kharkov, Odessa, Nikolaev, Pavlograd and many other towns are also prepared for the defense.
“I can see Russia ceasing hostilities and relying on peace talks” – NATO is not going to cease the hostilities. This war is not about Ukraine, though, of course, the war in Ukraine is an important part of it. This war is a big war for a new world order. The old security system in Europe doesn’t work; it is completely ruined by Americans. Europe is also only a part of this big conflict. The hostilities between US and China are also escalating. China/Russia alliance is slowly developing in a military alliance. Belarus, Iran and Syria are also involved in the conflict. This war is going to be very long. Only the use of nukes can make it shorter.
NATO proved it was a worse than useless organization over the destruction of Yugoslavia. NATO proved to be a Paper Tiger when they ran out of ammo during the second week of the Libya invasion. NATO is supposed to be a ‘defense only’ organization yet they are used to carry out the aims of the Globalist American Empire. Putin began ramping up weapons production in 2009, boosted it again in 2014, and has now gone full throttle on production whereas NATO weapons are complicated (to make them more expensive), high maintenance, and many have suspended production lines that will take longer than this war will last to ramp back up. If NATO is lucky, the Russians will complete their occupation of Russian speaking regions and stop military action before NATO is exposed for the hollow fraud that it is. Russia is also, and with reason, afraid of close alliances with China. Russia has always been more attracted to Europe than Asia and the Europeans were not against it but the GAE couldn’t stand the competiton. It the GAE stupidly drives Russia to ally with China, GAE will become a second-rate power like Britain became after Suez. Putin has built a non-West dependent economy whereas the West’s economies are built on a house of cards. There will be peace when Russian forces set up defenses on the Dneiper River.
After Biden there will be no NATO left, the pipeline sabotage is the beginning, the leader of the alliance declared war on another NATO member with the support of Norway and other NATO members. They are cutting each others throats.
The same is true of the EU, they sanction members who do not obey Biden when they don’t sanction Russia.
In the end US corporations are the winners, the war profiteers, the allies are the losers.
Even Hitler was not that devious.
After the destruction of Nord Stream, one could expect an outrage in Germany but, surprisingly, Germany accepted it quiet. Germans know very well about neo-Nazi essence of Kiev regime and yet they don’t mind siding with it. We also shouldn’t forget that Germany was the first country (together with Vatican) who recognized the independence of Croatia. Obviously, that happened because they are valuing those who in WW II were loyal to Germany. For the same reason they are supporting Kiev regime now. Probably Germans are still believing in the unipolar world ruled by Americans where Germany will be a minor partner.
Maybe you are right, I see it a bit differently, Americans, the Amis as the Germans call them, never ended the occupation completely, Germany is not s sovereign nation. Actually the Amis kept occupational control over the whole of Western Europe, including the EU.
Only DE Gaulle had the courage to oppose the Amis and left NATO and vetoed UK membership in EU twice. There are no statesmen in NATO member states and the EU like him or Adenauer, Brandt, Schmidt, and Kohl .
NATO is controlled by the USA, the whole world knows it, and the American neocon Biden administration is the pits, see Biden Nuland, Blinken, and Sullivan, that says it all.
In Germany I suspect that Scholz was informed before the sabotage, why else was there silence and no outrage in the public and no accounting in the Bundestag and more. They said they know who did it but can’t tell, that alone tells us who did it, they don’t dare say the idiots in the Biden administration did it. They needed Seymour Hersh to do it for them. Any other suspect they would have named, the insane accusation of Russia proves that, the least likely suspect. In addition we can be sure lots of money changed hands under the table. We are dealing with extreme criminal minds. Traitors is what they are.
European elites are corrupt. They don’t care any more about the independence. Their mass media is subordinated to American oligarchy and they don’t care. People are disorientated and follow the main stream. Even politicians who looked decent and reasonable, such as Marine Le Pen, are also supporting Kiev regime. So we have NATO, which is firmly positioned against Russia, and the rest of the world which mostly either pro-Russian or neutral.
The political elites of NATO are ready for the militarization of Europe. Difficult to see what they are hoping for. Maybe most of them believe in their own propaganda and expect the collapse of Russia.
Russia/China alliance is created by American hegemonistic politics. Americans proclaimed China as the main threat only because China is economically successful. American logic is profoundly criminal. They believe that only themselves have the right for success and prosperity and the rest of the world should live in misery. What they have done ,for example, to Libya, is pure crime. They have done it only because the living standards in Libya became higher that in The West. The world is watching this and sides with China/Russia.
The real story is — emerging strong countries. Both Iran and Turkey developed into strong regional anchors, mostly through Eurasian straegy supported by Russia, India and Chinna. Now Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Mexico and Argentina are vying ffor the next wave of countries with clout regionalnu, and through SCO and BRICKS -/ internationally.
There is a full court press these days in Kazakhstan. From Blinken onward. Transparent attempt at bribing elites to cause mischief for China and Russia. Heavens and eartg are promissed in dowry.
But Kazakhstan’s elites know the grief that follows any entanglement with West.
Most of Asia, Africa and Latin America are much less enthusiastic about unipolar world ruled by US oligarchy than Europe. Even in Europe many people understand that the unipolar world is impossible and the efforts to force it upon the rest of the world can bring nothing but misery.
One of the ‘good things’ to come out of this war if there is anything left of the world is that Europe will hopefully realize that the U.S. is NOT your friend and will bring about a realignment of Europe with the breakup of the current E.U. and see some countries shift to the East.
May be only Turkey could do it. And even Turkey prefers to sit on two chairs, the same as Hungary and Greece.
It is too late now. They can’t get out from Bakhmut safely.
Zelensky does not care, he did get his big checks, he got a good price for selling Ukraine, the nation for cannon fodder for the USA, the corporate neocon Biden gang.
If he fails to achieve anything what could be interpreted as a victory, the checks would be not so big.
Nazis in Bakhmut fry them like beacon!
Dumb
The final battle for Bakhmut would end thousands of lives for both Russia and Ukraine. I am not at all certain that Russia would oppose such an evacuation.
The evacuation of Ukraine forces from Bakhmut might make as much sense to Russia as the evacuation of Russian forces from Kherson made to Ukraine.
That is how western propaganda is trying to portray it. In reality, the number of killed Ukrainians over there is many times higher than the number of killed Russians. Ukrainian army got in Bakhmut in a very bad situation where their troops were exposed to Russian artillery but instead of retreating, they were sending in Bakhmut more and more reinforcements. As result, Ukraine bled dry trying to keep Bakhmut and now they have a problem to evacuate what is left of their army.
If it were as easy as you think, Mariupol would have been a piece of cake.
They lost it ling time ago. Every military worth its salt knows when loss is inevitable and stop wastingnhuman lufe and miltary resources, Have a plan B or C.
With Zelenski is all about optics. Just like Mariupol, when utterly surtounded inside a plant — Zelenskibstill claimed they were fighting for the city. Same in Soledar, Jagodina, etc.
As many people pounted out, these fortifications were built since 2014. That was once a majority Russian town. When Kiev decided to build up defences there, as terrein favors defenders — trenches were built right through people’s back yards. Concrete fortificatiins over people’s farms and fields. Most population left ling time sgo. These few old civilian die hards are waiting for Rusdian Army,
It remains to be seen what will happen next.
Peace at tbis point will be hard to imagine. Rusdia cannit leave ungmhinged Zelenski and his Nazi squads in place in Kiev, while NATO created a personality cult around him. There are four more Russian-speakung majority regions in Ukraine. It seems to me that if Zelenski and his security apparatus remain in power, Russia will continue incorporating Russian speakung areas. Change of regime in Kuev may end in negotiated settlement with neutrality as status.
If not, only Western Ukraie, splitting regions of Zhitomif snd Vinitsia will separate Nato controlled area from Kiev-Russia controlled areas.
Needs to end respecting people’s wish as to where they want to live. This is a civil war dressed up by zelenski as heroic fight for homeland, Nothing further from the truth.
Yes, it is a civil war, but it is also a part of a bigger war of American oligarchy against Russia/China alliance.
Once discredited and disillusioned and abandoned by the West, Zelinsky within the parameters of Kremlin dictated terms might be the perfect Quisling??
I am afraid not, He belings to a faction present in Ukrainian culture for iver a milkenua that visceraly hate anything Russian. Complexity of a country called Ukraine (The Borderlands) has yet to be told. it cannot be told because of our own cultural straight jacket. To talk about thousand plus year history and its deep seated contradictikns would be unnerving and uncomfortsble anywhere in the West.
So, without explanatjom — Mr. Z is the last person to be trusted with a job of quisling,
Does he “belong” or was he cast into a role by Washington and Azov? seems like he’s an opportunistic thesbian who got cast for the starring role in a blockbuster and couldn’t resist, not a fervid ideological partisan.
I think that is more Biden, Blinken, and Nuland than it is Z. He tried to compromise when it was still possible, and they stopped him. He’d run on honoring the Minsk 2 accords, and they stopped him.
Now they want to blame him? The blame belongs in DC. They must not be allowed to escape this time. They keep doing it, again and again, and won’t stop until they pay the price.
And what did all the deaths in Bakhmut accomplish? Start the talks already!
“Talks” are no possible.
The only outcome that could be talked about was abandoned by the West when it dishonored the Minsk 2 Accords, abusing them to prepare for this war instead.
Russia will now need to impose an outcome, and Ukrainians will need to die until it is done. This is disgusting, but reality is what it is.
Disgusting but fair enough.
Agree, brutal. As wars are. Ukrainian leaders could not care less about Russia’s concerns — from Ukraine bombing civilians in Donbas, to extra judicial killing of Russians throughout Ukraine, to NATO miliitary infrastructure moving in . Could not care less, and NATO wholeheartedly supported Ukrainian attempts to errase Russian population and kerp the land.
Ukraine had an opportunity. Minsk agreement was fair. It would have kept Donbas within Ukraine, resolve its status — without war.
Ukraine did not even pretend to implement. The goal was to resolve Donbas issue by force. and challenge Russia.
It was a situation NATO cherrished. Either Russians were going to be exxpelled from Ukraine, or Russia would be forced to intervene.
Good plan. But sometimes you must be careful what you wish for. It may actually come true.
Talks are very much possible, in fact they’re inevitable, despite the loss of face from the minsk 2 agreement. They already almost happened, and they will happen again. Putin is willing to talk when we are. Putin doesn’t have the capacity nor the intention of talking over all of Ukraine (he’s said so himself).
Hope that American mercenary is soon among the casualties..
Would be a great idea. Lost on Joe, though.
Too late to talk of strategic pullback.
The Russian holding operation held them in place as the pincers closed behind them. Now the last roads are covered by short ranged direct observation fires, and the ground other than roads is mud.
This is a classic mistake of people who put politics, appearances, and “messaging” above military reality. They began to believe their own nonsense, or at least to fear admitting it.
The real question now is how big will be the losses in this Falaise Gap-style encirclement.
To their limited credit, the US military did see this coming, did warn, but the Ukrainians and their American neocon boosters did not listen. They called out insults instead. Now reality comes home.
They need appearance of success because otherwise they will have problems with the financing.
“Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options…
but if need be, they will strategically pull back,” Alexander Rodnyansky told CNN. “We’re not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing.”
Except, sadly, that is what is happening.
If the Ukraine quits Bakhmut, you can bet your last ruble that Russia will do its best make every exit corridor look like the ‘Highway of Death’ in Iraq/Kuwait back in the day. They’d be foolish not to rip into the retreating forces and let them escape to fight another day. Personally, I think the Russians will cut the city off and grind down the remaining defenders just like they did in Mariupol/Azovstal.