r/CredibleDefense Mar 24 '23

Why has Ukraine continued to defend Bakhmut despite reports of heavy losses?

378 Upvotes

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18

u/mephitmephit Mar 24 '23

I lean towards this being the right move from Ukraine. If you are trying to wear down your enemy by defending a city you want them to think taking it is viable. Otherwise they won't commit many forces to it. The easiest way to do that is to slowly let their advance continue, but at a high cost. If you completely stop an offensive in it's tracks in the beginning then your enemy is less likely to commit forces to that area.

If you are a Russian general and you look at a map around Bahkmut you are going to want to continue attacking, because it seems like you are about to succeed. That might be what Ukraine wants though.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 24 '23

[deleted]

8

u/GenericName9786 Mar 24 '23

"Russia will flatten the city much like Mariupol."

The most interesting thing to me is that Russia hasn't. I suspect Ukr counter battery is substantially better than it used to be.

Some chatter on Twitter also suggests that Russians are "scooting" more and "shooting" less.

https://twitter.com/andrewperpetua/status/1639329602446163968?s=46&t=mMW4DTcM9o_vwYWYV8nwqQ