Mykhailo Podolak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, stated that the defense of Bakhmut is of strategic importance in the scale of the war. In turn, Ukrainian military expert Roman Svitan points out that the holding of Bakhmut by Ukrainian forces “prevents the Russian army from leveling the front line.”
The defense of Bakhmut is of strategic importance in the scale of the war, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said on Twitter on Thursday.
“Ukraine more than nine months hold back offensive potential Russia. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are destroying the most professional enemy troops and destroying the Kremlin’s key plan – to reach the administrative borders of the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.
Expert: The new line of defense is impenetrable
Ukrainian military expert Roman Switan, in an interview with Channel 24, indicated, among other things, that holding Bakhmut by Ukrainian forces prevents the Russian army from “aligning the front line”.
After a possible capture of the city, the enemy army could move further and threaten such cities as Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhivka and Kostiantynivka.
Ukrainian soldiers in positions near Bakhmut OLEG PETRASYUK/PAP/EPA
– We’ll stop them. This new line of defense is impenetrable. But such a scenario would enable them to pull up artillery there and transform these cities into a lunar landscape, the same as now in Bakhmut, Switan assessed.
The expert also predicts that when the Ukrainian counterattack begins, Russian forces will withdraw from Bakhmut.
Main photo source: OLEG PETRASYUK/PAP/EPA