Ukrainian military officials on Wednesday claimed that their forces made some gains near the eastern Donbas city of Bakhmut, where Russian forces have been steadily advancing for months.
According to Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, Ukrainian troops were able to push the Russians back by 2 kilometers (1.2 miles). “In some areas of the contact line, the enemy was unable to withstand the pressure of Ukrainian defenders and retreated to a distance of up to 2 kilometers,” Syrskyi wrote on Telegram.
According to SouthFront, which publishes daily maps of the battlefields in Ukraine, Ukrainian forces gained 2 kilometers in an area southwest of Bakhmut. SouthFront also reported that Russian forces captured new farmlands northwest of Bakhmut but didn’t specify how much territory was gained.
The news of the Ukrainian gains comes a day after the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner accused regular Russian forces of giving up positions near Bakhmut. “Today, everything is being done so that the front line crumbles. Today, one of the defense ministryโs units fled one of our flanks, abandoning their positions. Everyone fled,” he said.
Prigozhin has continued his criticisms of Russian military leadership but appears to have backed off on his threat to pull the Wagner fighters out of Bakhmut. Prigozhin previously said he would hand control of the front to a Chechen unit on May 10 but then said Moscow has vowed to provide enough ammunition for the brutal battle of Bakhmut.
The battle has become known as the meatgrinder, and Ukrainian soldiers have told accounts to the media of Kyiv sending in troops with little training and ammunition. Russian forces control over 90% of Bakhmut, but Ukrainian leadership does not want to cede the city.
I don’t know whether Ukraine has made the gains claimed or if they are significant. But the calendar doesn’t lie and the map often tells the truth. After over 9 months of attempting to defeat the Ukrainians at Bakhmut, the Russians have failed to encircle the Ukrainian garrison which is still being supplied and presumably reinforced.
Prizoghin’s cries and accusations sound like an attempt to shift the blame for another Russian debacle.
If Prizoghin is telling the truth, Russian troops are abandoning their front line positions and Wagner is not being adequately resupplied. Even if Prizoghin is lying, his laments show a serious breakdown in the chain of command and disunity that has to undermine the morale of the Russian troops. These sound like the signs of a defeated army whose leader is trying to shift the blame. Once again only the gullible believe that the Russian invasion is “going as planned.”
“But the calendar doesn’t lie, and the map often tells the truth.”
The calendar is irrelevant. And Ukraine has lost territory in this war.
The only lost territory that Ukraine lost was Crimea due to a surprise take over in 2014 and the one lost during the initial invasion, mainly due to the fact that Zelensky believed Putin when he said he would not invade. Furthermore, because of the surprised invasion, Zelensky didn’t have adequate forces in place to hold the Russians and after Putin crossed the border, many collaborators removed the landmines and explosives meant to blow up key bridges. The amount of lost territory taking place in force on force fighting has been nothing but a few kilometers here and there.
Now, that said, the calendar is irrelevant and how the territory was lost is too irrelevant but worth mentioning the why.
And why did Ukraine lose Crimea, Don? What preceded that event?
To the Neocon brain (or the ideology, whatever) there are no historical precedents, or indeed any facts, that can interfere with their narrative.
Putin bribed Yanukovych to pull out of a prolific economic agreement with the EU that would significantly increase UA’s GDP and would give UA the financial means to exploit their big Natural Gas reserves of the Eastern region of UA bringing economic prosperity to UA but hurting Russia’s Natural Gas monopoly sales to the EU as the UA would split that customer. The coup happens because the people of UA didn’t want to be slaves of Russia anymore. And when the new government was formed, Putin new that the Sevastopol base lease was not going to be renewed.
That’s what preceded Putin taking Crimea.
Now, what did the Kremlin tell you happened, Mary?
The Russians would tell you that they did all those things and blew up their own pipeline to boot!….in Don’s world.
“Bribed” ? After balking at the EU/IMF terms (which included given up land to foreign corporations), Yakunovitch chose the better terms from Putin that didn’t include such conditions, other than they use the loan for what it was intended. He had every right to counter the EU’s offer, which was only meant to lure Ukraine away from their next door neighbor’s influence, and further isolate them, and suck the country dry. I know, I know, this was too much for the nationalist (fascist ?) faction prominent in Kyiv and their neocon/lib backers, such as the disgusting Toria Nuland types.
Crimea was a surprise takeover – yes the Ukraine govt surprised takeover Crimea in 2014 and Russia stepped up and expelled the surprise invaders
Asymmetric wars of national resistance are determined by hearts and minds, not force of arms.
The calendar is relevant because the window of opportunity for an invader to win is short. The invader needs to (i) conquer (i.e. defeat the army); (ii) occupy (i.e. set up an administration with popular support) and (iii) pacify (i.e. defeat the resistance). The defender only needs to survive (i.e., avoid annihilation) and continue to resist to eventually prevail. The calendar is relevant because if the Ukrainians are still fighting then the invader failed to pacify the country. Early in the conflict it becomes clear if the resistance or the invader has won the hearts and minds of the people. Once a critical mass of people go over to the resistance, the invader is locked in a negative feedback loop where escalation against the resistance strengthens the resistance. Russia is locked in the negative feedback loop where the harder they fight, the more the Ukrainians are determined to resist.
The Chinese understand this.It is a reduction of Mao Tse Tung’s theory of “People’s War.” The Russians can’t win because the majority of the Ukrainian people support the resistance fighting for independence from Russia. The calendar proves that the Ukrainians were not defeated in the window of opportunity that Russia had to win their hearts and minds or at least their acquiescence to the invasion.
The time isn’t short. The best Ukraine will come out of this is pre-invasion lines. Russia isn’t leaving. This isn’t the US on the other side of the world in Vietnam or Afghanistan. The longer it goes the closer we get to WW3.
If by “pre-invasion lines” you mean Russian forces vacate Donetsk/Luhansk, that seems incredibly unlikely.
Yes, you’re right. I should have said “possibbly hope for” and that would still have been incredibly unlikely.
I am not disagreeing with your points but one well known retired military officer still claims that the Russians are waiting for the ground to dry before unleashing a pounding attack. I don’t know, I’m just offering another possibility.
Bill, I expected Russia to pulverize the Ukrainian army in about 4 weeks. They are a superpower. But Russia does not have a bad army. This is a bad war. National resistance is about hearts and minds. No amount of US military Aid could motivate the South Vietnames army or the Afghan army to fight. On the other hand the Viet Cong and the Ukrainians will fight with bamboo shoots, sticks and stones to inevitably win. The USA won every battle in Vietnam and Afghanistan but lost those wars. The only reason the US had any success in Iraq was the Shiite rebellion. Today itis obvious the Shiites, not the US, won the Iraq war.
I watched the war early on to decide whether the Ukrainians were oppressed by a neo-Nazi dictatorship looking to be liberated by Russia or a real nation determined to be independent of their former colonial overlords. Within a few months it was obvious that the Ukrainians are fighting like hell against the Russians. And the Russians are listless, clueless, like the US in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. The amazing thing is that the Ukrainian army is kicking ass with US/NATO aid. I expect that when a Republican is elected in 2024 US aid will dry up and the Ukrainian army may eventually get beaten and the resistance driven underground. But the Ukrainian will continue the resistance until the Russians leave. It could take years or decades, but a superpower can’t beat a genuine national resistance movement on its home turf. In the long run hearts and minds beats force of arms.
Imagine you’re one of the “defenders” for Ukraine, being sent to the front lines to die for a town you don’t give a damn about. Or being one of the draftees from a Russian prison, trying to win your freedom. Both of these poor souls are likely gonna die in this forsaken town that nobody even heard of before the war because their leaders are morons and don’t want to negotiate and insist on killing each other. And what is America doing in this? We have done nothing other than sit in the Pentagon and directing the bloodshed to continue. We really haven’t come that far since medieval warfare where we sent entire armies of people to die in front of pikes for the pleasure of some medieval lord sitting somewhere in a castle, have we?
“Imagine you’re one of the “defenders” for Ukraine, being sent to the front lines to die for a town you don’t give a damn about. ”
Ukrainians are fighting for Ukraine, each town city is part of their land and family. Ukraine is not Africa where nations are subdivided by clans.
Russian draftees are the ones who don’t give a damn about any town in Ukraine.
You left this part out:
“Or being one of the draftees from a Russian prison, trying to win your freedom. Both of these poor souls are likely gonna die in this forsaken town that nobody even heard of before the war because their leaders are morons and don’t want to.”
But then your comment would have made little sense since you distorted what he actually was saying.
My response is the same.
Why? You argued a point he wasn’t making.
Russian work-release is no joke.
I can remember guys just bitching about work release because they’ll be sent to a warehouse to work without heat and have to pee in a cup when they showback up to their bed (before curfew of course).
They have to stay until they earn enough to get a crappy apartment (or a bed at a shelter once they get flatten and are off paper)
In Russia it’s a war.
No, Don! The Ukrainians are fighting for U.S. Global Hegemony. It is the U.S. that doesn’t give a damn about any town in Ukraine. Ukraine is the current battlefield the U.S. has chosen in its war against Russia.
If you believe that Ukrainians don’t care about their nation, then that is a good assumption but I know, Ukrainians have their own identity, love their country and would fight in any way they could to keep Russia from taking their land. Take US out of your equation and you’ll have a Ukrainian insurgency the like of Iraq when they were fighting the mighty US Armed Forces.
Ukrainians fighting for their country and Ukrainians fighting for US global hegemony aren’t mutually exclusive.
Yes these two things happen to align fairly perfectly at this point in time – however if Ukraine joins EU after the war then the US will not actually improve on its current position of dominance, actually it will get a bit weaker (not much bit still).
The “weakening” of Russia would help.
Good point. One has to wonder if as in many wars, the fighters even know what they’re fighting for?
I agree about Ukraine.
I don’t agree with your characterization of Africa. Tribalism exists but in most countries nationalism is stronger than tribalism and support for Pan-Africanism is also growing.
I generalized to give a relevant example. I do know many African countries do have a collective national identity.
The principle of transcending tribalism with nationalism and Pan-Africanism was a core principal of the anti-colonial movements for independence after WWII and remains the common ground consensus of the AU.
Nationalism is tribalism. On steroids.
The general principle of Pan-Africanism is to build larger states, regional unions and eventually uniting Africa. Tribalism is considered to be a destabilizing force that inhibits development. The problem with tribalism or ethnicism is that you can’t draw any boundary line that has only Ukrainians on one side and only Russians on the other side. The founders of the sub-Saharan African nations faced this in the 1940’s and decided that building states based on ethnicity would lead to interminable warfare and instability. So the guiding principle of Pan Africanism and the Bandung nations was to use the arbitrary colonial boundaries they inherited to build national identities and to oppose making tribalism the unifying principle of the new African states.
Ethnicism (or, on steroids, ethno-nationalism) is one variety of tribalism . It’s not the only one. Non-ethnicity-based tribal/nationalist death cults like the United States and the Soviet Union have proven themselves at least as lethal as their ethnic counterparts like the Third Reich. I’m not sure that stability in a death cult is really a good thing.
The US has once again helped to spread terrorism.
NEO-NAZI TERROR THREAT GROWS AS UKRAINE FIGHTERS JAILED IN FRANCE
The Arrest Of Two Heavily Armed French Neo-Nazis Returning From Ukraine Highlights A Looming Problem For NATO States Sponsoring The Proxy War.
And their conspiracy of silence on the nature of the threat.
https://thegrayzone.com/2023/05/09/neo-nazi-terror-threat-grows-as-ukraine-fighters-jailed-in-france/
The ways to kill improve, but the nature of ‘humanity’ doesn’t.
Russian prison work-release is no joke.
The Russians have started to share that 90% is taken (up from 80% a few weeks ago) and if Mr. DeCamp is sharing the numbers it must have been verified more than just by the Russian press.
Sure the Russian might have withdrawn from a area but could it be they are now in that newly taken area and left that little bit to do so?
After all those persentages of what is taken keep getting larger and despite the Ukranian announcement those percentages did not drop back to 85% taken did they?
But but but…. do you need tissue for those tears.
No need for excuses for your mighty Russian Army.
If they are that great, just sit back and enjoy them crushing Ukraine inch by inch and taking their land. The SMO is going according to plans, so just calm down. It is all Western propaganda, no need for stress.
Hi DJ:
She’s not crying, she was explaining some information…
Yes, Of course. And had I posted a similar comment in favor of Ukraine you would’ve been up front with some smart ass comment.
“Smart ass” is not my thing. I prefer a good exchange of thoughts, ideas and information. I read your posts too, whether I agree or not. I’m interested to know what you think and why you think it… You can be a tad abrasive…
Abrasive? Most likely because I support Ukraine and I get attacked a lot here for that however, you won’t consider abrasive any of the folks here that support Russia, even the radical ones. Hmm.
So If I rough some folk’s feathers here sometimes, that’s because I’m retaliating in kind.
I appreciate your directness DJ.
The problem I have with your posts is that they tend to make the US look pretty bad. You repeat sound bites regardless of how close they are to the truth, and you never have any detailed information to add.
You would make a good US politician. Or maybe an ad writer for one. You make the case that the US is headed for the trash bin of history (I think that’s an old US sound bite…). You stated it quite clearly. Your goal is to hurt others – ruffle some feathers. And if Ukraine and Taiwan get destroyed in the meantime – well that seems to be part of your intent.
I do not have a side in this quasi-civil war of Slavic folks.
I only understand somewhat the history of the area that goes back way before today.
You may not have a side in this war but your comments do and there’s nothing wrong with claiming a side. Just don’t pretend to be neutral when you are not.
Being neutral does not mean I don’t understand why Russia desided they needed a buffer but why must I have a side?
It’s more a civil war between groups of Slavs who have been at each other for centuries it seems.
Must I pick a side in the over 30 armed conflicts going on in the world today?
I would refer back to most of your comments on this blog for your claim of neutrality.
I can easily see which side was pushed and who did the pushing.
I can also understand the historical needs of each party.
So is having a better grasp of the situation than you what you mean by a side?
Are you one of those flag wavers that the only thing that matters is which flag the respective sides are waving and that cures all in regards to fault?
Honestly your opinions of me are more comical than concerning to me.
Did you have the same compassion for the Ukrianians in the Donbass regions when they were being crushed by Kiev? You hypocrite!
The โGhost of Kievโ miraculously resurrected to shoot down Russian planes and bombed Russian military, I bet. ๐ค
I assume that one of the goals of this operation was to remove Russian troops who are blocking road H-32. But, in a separate battle, Wagner seized another strategic section of the same road.
Russian troops also captured ground inside “the citadel” area of Bakhmut. If they can hold their position there, this effectively eliminates any possibility of using H-32 for resupply or evacuation. Ukraine must now decide if it is better to try to retake the area or withdraw to the north-western side of the citadel.
The Russian MOD is fighting a very successful war of attrition disarming NATO (Ukraine was disarmed in March 2022), tank by tank, artillery by artillery, air defense by air defense. Russia now will fight NATO to the last European.
At the May 9th Victory Day Parade Vladimir Putin has included the De-occupation of Ukraine as an objective of the SMO. The SMO now will achieve De-Nazification, Demilitarisation and De-Occupation of Ukraine.
If the Ukrainian people want their sovereignty back then they need to remove NATO who has illegally occupied Ukraine since the coup in 2014.
NATO overall has accumulated the following equipment losses;
420 Aircraft, 230 helicopters, 4062 UAV’s, 421 Anti Aircraft systems, 9067 tanks inc. APC’s, 1098 multiple rocket launchers, 4780 rocket launchers and 10103 military automotive equipment.
What the empire looses in the Ukraine, they loose for the final Russian attack on NATO. Russia has shown they will pre-emptively attack to defend the Motherland when the time is dictated by events on the ground.
“Russia has shown they will pre-emptively attack to defend the Motherland…” Probably soon and with nuclear weapons. Poland or the UK will be responsible, but Biden, Blinken, and Nuland will be goading them on.
Noting your lack of antiwar and hatred spirit.
How sick of you and Sh!t Sernz to say things like that here and still get upvotes and zero counters from the self calling ‘antiwar’ crown here.
i say that you are making up straws to grasp at Julio.
because the NA guy can indeed be anti-war whilst simultaneously predicting that if some nuclear event does happen then it will be uncle sam who precipitates it
Well said. The pro-war guy wants to educate us on how to be anti-war. He thinks it’s a good use of his time. I just ignore him and move on. LOL.
“The news of the Ukrainian gains comes a day after the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner accused regular Russian forces of giving up positions near Bakhmut.”
As the Russians were making gains in Bakhmut, the Western Media was telling us that Bakhmut was of little strategic value. So maybe the Russians came to realize that and see no reason to hold on to Bakhmut.
The importance of Bakhmut changed dramatically when the Russians lost Izium – as in losing Bakhmut was after the loss of Izium less of a threat of encirclement for troops in Krematorsk and Sloviansk. Holding on to Bakhmut is likely only of any significant value to the Russians on account of the attention they have given the place in their debate space – and I halfway suspect that this is something they could fairly easily get over.
“As the Russians were making gains in Bakhmut, the Western Media was telling us that Bakhmut was of little strategic value.”
Which “Western Media” was that? So far as I can tell, media worldwide, including “Western” media, have seemed to agree all along that Bakhmut is the key to the securing Donetsk.
It seems more likely that Prigozhin is having another one of his not very coherent fits of rage, and that Ukrainian propagandists are riffing on him to pretend that the Ukrainian forces are making “gains,” than that the fundamental situation — Russian forces taking Bakhmut little by little at great cost — has changed.
Bakhmut is a highway with heavy rail connections that, in my untrained opinion, has considerable logistical significance. Before the fighting, it offered warehouses that could be used store food, supplies, and ammunition. I’ve also heard it was an industrial center.
I suspect that Ukraine originally seized Bakhmut to deny its economic benefits to the Donetsk People’s Republic.
But, in my opinion, the troop losses Ukraine has been willing to sustain to keep it tell you plenty about how much value they ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฆ place on it.
This seems to be the start of the 2023 episode of the long running SMO.
The pro-Russian sources are reporting multiple attacks along the front. Possibly most of it is US or Russian disinformation. Sit back and take it all in. Spend time with your loved ones. Escalation is just one misunderstanding away.
At best we will get an idea of kind of what is happening. And definitely do your best to strip away the emotionally charged language that will surround each story.