The battle for the town of Bakhmut might have ended, but the town isn’t out of the news yet.
With the Wanger Group mercenaries pulling out of the ruined town, the Kremlin is forced to send elite units to fill the gap.
Wagner Group Out, VDV Paratroopers In
The Russian military continues to redeploy units in and around Bakhmut to replace Wagner Group mercenary forces. The infamous private military company captured the town of Bakhmut in May after several months of brutal fighting and heavy losses. Western intelligence estimates assess that the Russian forces lost more than 100,000 men killed, wounded, or captured in trying to take the town in the Donbas.
Even before the operation had ended, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin had announced that his assault detachments would be pulling back from Bakhmut once the ruined town had been captured.
According to the British Military Intelligence, the Kremlin has redeployed the 76th and 106th VDV divisions, as well as two separate VDV brigades in the Bakhmut sector.
The VDV airborne forces are a separate service within the Russian Armed Forces and are considered to be the strategic reserve of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The war in Ukraine, however, has dented their image as an elite force.
“The VDV is much degraded from its pre-invasion ‘elite’ status. However, Russian commanders have likely attempted to maintain some of these still relatively capable units as an uncommitted reserve,” the British Military Intelligence assessed in its latest estimate of the war.
However, not all is well for the Russian forces in the area of Bakhmut. Over the past few weeks, the Ukrainian military has launched a series of localized counterattacks in the northern and southern flanks of the town, liberating a good chunk of territory.
“Because they have instead been forced to deploy them to hold the front line in Bakhmut, the whole Russian force is likely to be less flexible in reacting to operational challenges,” the British Military Intelligence added.
Fixing down a large number of Russian troops in and around Bakhmut had been the goal of the Ukrainian military leadership. With the large-scale counteroffensive about to go off, the Ukrainians would benefit from a Russian troop concentration in a different part of the battlefield.
Russian Casualties
Meanwhile on the ground, the Russian casualty rate is picking up. In the past 24 hours, the Russian forces lost more than 500 men killed, wounded, or captured. This is the second day in a row that the Russian military, Wagner Group private military company, and pro-Russian separatist units have lost that number of troops.
On day 464 of the war, the Ukrainian military holds the strategic initiative and is ready to launch its large-scale counteroffensive, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Overall, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claimed that as of Saturday, Ukrainian forces have killed and wounded approximately 209,470 Russian troops.
Destroyed equipment includes: 313 fighter, attack, bomber, and transport jets, 298 attack and transport helicopters, 3,829 tanks, 3,533 artillery pieces, 7,502 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, 582 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), 18 boats and cutters, 6,289 vehicles and fuel tanks, 342 anti-aircraft batteries, 3,165 tactical unmanned aerial systems, 475 special equipment platforms, such as bridging vehicles, and four mobile Iskander ballistic missile systems, and 1,132 cruise missiles shot down by the Ukrainian air defenses.
A 19FortyFive Defense and National Security Columnist, Stavros Atlamazoglou is a seasoned defense journalist specializing in special operations, 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 Business Insider, Sandboxx, and SOFREP.
From 19FortyFive
