“Of course, from a strategic point of view, Bakhmout does not matter much, because the Russians have completely destroyed the city with their artillery. But if they take Bakhmout, they will want to go further. That will give them an advantage,” he said, adding, “the question is what happens following Bakhmout?”
“We have to hold out in time to receive weapons,” Zelensky said.
Bakhmout, a city of some 70,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion, is one of the hot spots on the eastern front, and the belligerents have been fighting a devastating and deadly battle there since the summer. It was almost destroyed and the few thousand of its inhabitants who remained there survived, holed up in cellars.
The Battle of Bakhmout has taken on a symbolic dimension, in particular because mercenaries from the private Russian group Wagner are fighting there and their boss Yevgueni Prigojine would like to offer a victory to Russia, which had to retreat following a counter-offensive. Ukrainian in the east in the fall.
In recent weeks, Russian troops have been gaining ground, meter by meter, and at the end of January they seized Soledar, a town near Bakhmout, which has also been plagued by fighting for months.
Taking Bakhmout would also open the way to Kramatorsk, a major industrial city in the Donetsk region.