{"id":1786146,"date":"2022-12-25T06:30:20","date_gmt":"2022-12-25T11:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1786146"},"modified":"2022-12-25T07:34:03","modified_gmt":"2022-12-25T12:34:03","slug":"will-the-battle-for-bakhmut-decide-the-ukraine-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/will-the-battle-for-bakhmut-decide-the-ukraine-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the Battle for Bakhmut Decide the Ukraine War?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwill-the-battle-for-bakhmut-decide-the-ukraine-war%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1786146&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/HIMARS-4-e1664489192812.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>Ukraine War Update:<\/strong> Almost <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/12\/putins-crisis-russia-is-losing-an-insane-500-troops-a-day-in-ukraine\/\">ten months<\/a> into the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/12\/why-so-many-in-the-gop-are-against-the-ukraine-war\/\">conflict<\/a>, the world\u2019s eyes are fixed on the Ukrainian town of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/12\/bakhmut-is-hell-on-earth\/\">Bakhmut<\/a>.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>For the past six months, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/12\/putins-war-in-ukraine-is-now-a-historic-disaster\/\">Ukrainian forces<\/a>\u00a0have been keeping the Russians from capturing the town, inflicting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/12\/want-proof-putins-ukraine-war-is-a-disaster-100000-russians-are-dead\/\">thousands of casualties<\/a> on the invaders.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainian\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/12\/22\/europe\/ukraine-zelensky-bakhmut-us-congress-intl\/index.html\">President Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a>\u00a0even visited the town\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-64038140\">hours before his trip<\/a>\u00a0to the U.S. on Wednesday.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Wanger Group in Ukraine<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Russian private military company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/12\/is-wagner-group-targeting-foreign-aid-workers-and-soldiers-helping-them-in-ukraine\/\">Wagner Group<\/a> has been taking the lead on the attack against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/2022\/12\/22\/wagner-russia-north-korea-missiles-convicts\/\">Bakhmut<\/a>, with the Russian military relegated to a secondary role.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>But the Wagner Group mercenaries are suffering heavy losses.\n<\/p>\n<p>According to the U.S. Intelligence Community, more than 1,000 former convicts recruited by the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-business-north-korea-e6a068d91bc9828ecadfb67c929a4162?utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&#038;utm_medium=AP&#038;utm_source=Twitter\">Wagner Group<\/a>\u00a0have been killed around Bakhmut only in the past few days.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. assesses that there are between 40,000 and 50,000 Wagner Group <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/12\/putin-should-be-scared-wagner-group-is-using-north-korean-arms-in-ukraine\/\">mercenaries<\/a> fighting in Ukraine right now, the majority of whom are former convicts who enlisted to the private military company after the Kremlin introduced a law that allowed inmates to serve in Ukraine in exchange for their freedom.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/12\/how-much-cash-and-bullets-should-america-give-ukraine\/\">Ukrainians<\/a>\u00a0are using all the tricks in the playbook to stop the Russian forces from taking the town. Ukrainian snipers are turning the town into an urban nightmare for the Russian forces. Beyond the obvious physical danger to ground troops, snipers have a big psychological effect on an infantry unit, as it never knows if it is safe or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Russian forces are also suffering from the elements on the outskirts of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/battle-for-bakhmut-is-critical-test-of-russias-prospects-in-ukraine-11671382297?redirect=amp\">Bakhmut<\/a>. Moscow has sent thousands of mobilized reservists, underequipped and ill-supported, to the frontlines. The result is troves of Russian troops\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/davidaxe\/2022\/11\/27\/russian-soldiers-are-freezing-to-death-in-eastern-ukraine\/?sh=2af154234254\">freezing to death<\/a>.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Urban Combat in Bakhmut\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In the last few days, the Russian forces have made some advances on the eastern outskirts of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/davidaxe\/2022\/12\/22\/bakhmut-is-soaked-in-blood-as-eight-of-ukraines-best-brigades-battle-40000-former-russian-prisoners\/?sh=4ce352b76f23\">Bakhmut<\/a>. An intense battle for the town has been taking place since June, but the fighting had mostly taken place in the open country that surrounds the town. However, now combat has been entering urban areas, presenting a whole different problem set for the two sides.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRussian infantry likely now has a foothold in the eastern industrial areas of the town, and at times has advanced into the residential district of the city. Street fighting is ongoing. . .The war has seen little protracted, large-scale fighting in built up areas (FIBUA) since the Russian advances into Lysychansk and Siverodonetsk in July 2022,\u201d the British Military Intelligence\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DefenceHQ\/status\/1605456105605414913\">assessed<\/a>\u00a0in its latest estimate of the war.<\/p>\n<p>Urban combat is notoriously difficult and costly for both sides. The defenders have an advantage because they are barricaded, and they own the city. Back before the summer, the Russian forces lost thousands of troops trying to capture Mariupol. They also paid a heavy price for the capture of Severodonetsk in the summer. The situation in Bakhmut doesn\u2019t look like it is heading that way right now, as the Ukrainians have their lines of communication and supply to the town open.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, the Russian forces aren\u2019t that capable, though they do have the numbers, and that can be enough sometimes.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith FIBUA demanding highly trained infantry with excellent junior level leadership, this type of combat is unlikely to favour poorly trained\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/12\/22\/russia-wagner-ukraine-prisoners-00075276\">Wagner fighters<\/a>\u00a0and the Russian army\u2019s mobilised reservists,\u201d the British Military Intelligence added.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Expert Biography:<\/strong>\u00a0A\u00a0<em>19FortyFive Defense and National Security Columnist,\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/sofrep.com\/author\/stavros-atlamazoglou\/\"><em>Stavros Atlamazoglou<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0is a seasoned defense journalist specializing in\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/soldiers-one-militarys-most-dangerous-161118164.html\"><em>special operations<\/em><\/a><em>, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate. His work has been featured in <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/delta-force-sas-hunted-iraqi-scud-missiles-during-gulf-war-2021-2\"><em>Business Insider<\/em><\/a><em>,\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sandboxx.us\/blog\/author\/stavros\/\"><em>Sandboxx<\/em><\/a><em>, and\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/sofrep.com\/news\/exclusive-the-perilous-state-of-the-special-forces-combat-diver-capability\/\"><em>SOFREP<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ukraine War Update: Almost ten months into the conflict, the world\u2019s eyes are fixed on the Ukrainian town of\u00a0Bakhmut.\u00a0 For the past six months, the\u00a0Ukrainian forces\u00a0have been keeping the Russians from capturing the town, inflicting thousands of casualties on the invaders.\u00a0 Ukrainian\u00a0President Volodymyr Zelensky\u00a0even visited the town\u00a0hours before his trip\u00a0to the U.S. on Wednesday.\u00a0 Wanger &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1745089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[9369,6962,8438,6731,5458,11708,3819,6991,6696,4719],"class_list":["post-1786146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-for","tag-the","tag-bakhmut","tag-battle","tag-bongino","tag-decide","tag-report","tag-ukraine","tag-war","tag-will"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1786146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1745089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1786146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1786146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1786146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}