Bakhmut Final Update 05/20/2023
The battle for the city of Bakhmut (Artemovsk for the Russians) ended
The head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced today that all of Bakhmut has been taken by the Wagner forces.
He also said that on May 25th the Wagner forces will hand over control to the Russian army and pull back for rest and retraining.
Prigozhin thanked Russian president Vladimir Putin. “"And thanks to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin for giving us this opportunity and the high honor of defending our homeland.”
He also thanked Generals Sergei Surovikin and Mikhail Mizintsev, who "made it possible to carry out this difficult operation".
There is no final accounting of losses on either side.
Prigozhin praised the Ukrainians defending the city
See brief video here:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1659923608683126784
It isn’t clear what next steps will be carried out by the Russian army. On the previous night Russian carried out another large scale bombing of Ukrainian targets and also claimed they shot down a number of Himars rockets and StormShadow cruise missiles.
There is still fighting on the northern flank of Bakhmut (outside the city), but after some gains by the Ukrainian army, the Russians are now reversing them and retaking lost ground. The situation in the Ivanjske direction is less clear although it seems the Ukrainian push has run out of steam.
While Ukrainian sources are claiming Bakhmut was unimportant, the long battle over 9 months was ordered by Zelensky against the advice of his military commanders.
Dear Joseph, Thank you for pointing out the date error which I fixed. Asia Times asked me to prepare a longer article which I have done, and that will probably appear later today.
Infortunately, this is what happens when an oligarch with media talent (including mastery of propaganda) teams up with our own decrepit oligarch whose entire family is up to its eyeballs in tens of millions of influence-peddling dollars.
When Russia took Crimea, gaining control of a militarily strategic port, Biden's former boss yawned. No one in the left-wing commentariat gave a good goddamn.
Under Biden, the losses to American power and credibility, not to mention the draining of military stockpiles and readiness, cannot be overstated.