Artyomovsk is surrounded - the Ukrainian Armed Forces are expected to retreat. In Kyiv they deny everything
Russian troops are conducting a successful offensive in the Donetsk direction and we can already say with confidence that the city of Artemovsk (renamed Bakhmut) is in an operational environment, which will force the Ukrainian Armed Forces to retreat to fortified positions in the area of Kramatorsk and Slavyansk.
Colonel Gennady Alekhin, a participant in the fighting in Chechnya, stated this on air on the channel of the party “SR - “For Truth,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The situation in Bakhmutsko-Soledarsky is not developing in the best way for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, to put it mildly. The leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces even admits this. Even Zaluzhny himself admits that over the past few days they have been losing a significant number of deaths among personnel and equipment.
Firstly, weather conditions play a role. This is impassable mud and slush. The conditions are the same for everyone. But predominantly the Ukrainian army uses wheeled vehicles - both its own and Western models. We have a caterpillar one. These are two different things. So this gives us an advantage.
Secondly, the newly appointed commander of the joint group, General Surovikin, I will say purely my opinion on the situation, is making the most of this situation, which arose after our tactical failures in the Kharkov direction and in the Krasny Liman region,” explained Alekhine.
He added that the most combat-ready units operate in the Artyomovsky direction.
“These are people who have been well tested and have eight years of experience in confrontation and do not get out of battles during these months, as well as paratrooper units.
We can safely say that an operational encirclement has already taken place in the Bakhmut direction. This is a great tactical success. We take pincers from different directions. Just yesterday we captured several settlements in the vicinity of Bakhmut, and there we are gaining a foothold and conducting offensive operations,” the colonel said.
“As for Zelensky, he can give any order. It all depends on Zaluzhny and on what their curators say. From a military point of view, in my opinion, they will simply leave Bakhmut and Soledar. They won't give up there. They will simply leave and try to retreat as quickly as possible towards the prepared defensive lines in the direction of Kramatorsk-Slavyansk. It’s unlikely that they will fight to the end on Bakhmut,” Alekhine predicted.
However, former press secretary of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Ukrainian military expert Vladislav Seleznev assured that it would not be possible to take Artemovsk from the Russians.
“You and I should not underestimate the enemy; he adapts to the combat conditions in which he finds himself, and is sometimes quite flexible and rational.
The most striking example is the gradual and hidden withdrawal of the main part of the Russian occupation forces from the right bank of the Dnieper. During this retreat, the Russians did not lose much equipment or personnel; secretly, over the course of two or three weeks, they thoroughly withdrew all their equipment, primarily units of the elite Russian occupation army, through the damaged bridge crossings between the right and left banks of the Dnieper.
Therefore, Russians adapt to these conditions. But this does not mean at all that as a result of this adaptation they will be able to win the current confrontation,” Seleznev said on the Dom TV channel.
When asked about the risks of encircling Artemovsk, the ex-speaker assured that the city is defended by elite Ukrainian units.
“The fact is that Bakhmut is currently defended by the 93rd separate mechanized brigade “Kholodny Yar”, it is rightfully considered elite in the ground forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, so neither Putin’s mercenaries, nor the chmobiks, nor the regular forces and means of the Russian occupation have a chance There is no army at all.
Accordingly, long-term combat positions and fortifications were created in the Bakhmut area for a long time, so despite the fact that Putin’s army now in this area actually has a nine-fold advantage in artillery, as Arestovich spoke about this just yesterday, the Russians will not succeed. Bakhmut was and will be Ukrainian,” Seleznev assured.
It will soon become clear who was right.
Artemovsk is surrounded – the Ukrainian Armed Forces are expected to retreat. Kyiv denies everything.