Sunday, December 4, 2022

Reality In Ukraine: Loss Of Life 'Colossal...'

The Ukrainians Are In Real Trouble in Bakhmut



Russia and Ukraine have been slugging it out in Bakhmut, a strategic location vital to Ukraine’s ability to remain in the western part of the Donetsk Republic, and it is evoking alarm among Ukraine’s western allies as Russia grinds on with devastating effect.

Dallas Morning News opinion piece by Hollie McKay, who clearly sides with Ukraine, admitted some uncomfortable truths:

A victory for the Russians, even one that resembles the apocalypse, is a very real and very jarring possibility. For the Kremlin, securing Bakhmut — one of the few places it is not in retreat — represents the frenzied feat needed to change the narrative of their losing “special military operation.”. . .

I watch helplessly as missiles whirl above and slam into civilian infrastructure. Certainly, Moscow’s targeting of non-combatant dwellings has been well-documented throughout the war. However, what I also observe is that Ukraine’s military often sets up posts directly outside humanitarian headquarters, hospitals and homes. It is for self-protection or because there are no longer conventional sandbagged frontlines and delineations between the armed and the unarmed. Nevertheless, it makes the scenario uncomfortable and makes every inch a pronounced target.

Holly indulges the fantasy that Russia is mostly retreating. That is a lie. Russia is moving on a broad front in Donetsk and the Ukrainians are paying a terrible price. Not my opinion. It is the judgment of a neo-Nazi Ukrainian commander:

The commander of the neo-Nazi Svoboda battalion, Petro Kuzik, whose unit is trying to hold Bakhmut, told Western media that the fields and forests around are littered with the corpses of Ukrainian soldiers, and they have to defend themselves in extreme cold and knee-deep in water.

“They [the Russians] sensed a weakness in our defenses because there are units that are less motivated than ours. And yesterday they slightly weakened our defenses in the area immediately around Bakhmut. Some units could not withstand this artillery onslaught and retreated.”

Asked how serious the loss of life is, he said: “They are colossal. We don’t even count the bodies.”


Pictures and videos are worth a thousand words. The following will give you an appreciation of the horror unfolding in Bakhmut.




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