The east of Ukraine is still bleeding. A terrible massacre for a small but strategically important city has continued since mid-summer. But so far, Bakhmut is not fully controlled by Ukraine or Russia. Therefore, some military experts admit that Ukraine would be better off giving Bakhmut to the Russians. But it would open the way for the invaders to the interior of Ukraine and allow them to shoot not only on the roads but also at the civilian population.
The ISW conducted their research and published a report opposing the Ukrainian army ceding its city. Experts believe that if Ukraine leaves Bakhmut, it will lose more people than now during its defence. It is also noted that the Ukrainian army takes comfortable positions, which allows you to control the situation. If the defenders of their country retreat, they will have to build defences in a less advantageous environment and, most likely, retreat further to the border of the Donetsk and Dnipro regions. Moreover, the ISW compares the defence of Bakhmut with the defence of the extreme positions of the Luhansk region – Lysychansk and Severodonetsk. These were also small cities, and Russia expanded a lot of manpower and resources to capture them, thus becoming noticeably depleted.
"The Ukrainian defence of Bakhmut is likely to contribute to such an outcome – Russian troops are sending live forces and equipment to the area since May 2022 and have not yet made any significant progress seriously threatening the Ukrainian defence of the area," experts believe.
In conclusion, they add that Ukraine defends Bakhmut and strongly attacks the enemy in other regions. For example, in early January, the occupiers tried to expand the fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region. But the Institute for the Study of War notes that all forces and equipment are now in the Donetsk region, so the occupiers have no success.
