Ukraine: why did Bakhmut become the new symbol of war with Russia?

The head of the Wagner Group mercenary company, businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, on Friday urged the President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, to stop go out to the “children and old people” who defend the city of Bakhmutin eastern Ukraine, which according to him is already practically surrounded by his units.

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“Units of the Wagner private military company have practically surrounded Bakhmut. Only one road remains. The pincers are closed,” Prigozhin, dressed in uniform, said in a video directed at Zelensky and posted on Telegram.

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The battle for Bakhmut, an industrial city of questionable strategic importance, dates back to last summer and has caused heavy losses on both sides. The city has become a symbol of war, for being the epicenter of fighting between Russians and Ukrainians for months.

In recent weeks, Russian forces have advanced north and south of Bakhmut, cutting off three of the four supply roads for Ukrainian forces.

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But why did Bakhmut become the new symbol of the war in Ukraine?

a devastated city

The battle of Bakhmut, one of the hardest and longest of the war in Ukraine to date, has acquired over the months a symbolic value that goes far beyond its strategic interest.

The fate of the eastern Ukrainian city is reminiscent of that of the southern port of Mariupol, ravaged by months of fierce fighting until its fall into Russian hands in the first half of 2022.

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The small industrial city in eastern Ukraine, with a population of 70,000 before the invasion, was devastated after eight months of fighting. Described as “hell on Earth” by Ukrainian soldiers, it is today “practically surrounded”, according to the Russian group Wagner.

This battle with incessant artillery fire and meter by meter advances caused immense losses on both sides.. Civilians – several thousand of whom remained hidden in basements – also paid a heavy price, as did the Ukrainian and foreign volunteers who came to help them.

The Ukrainian military command had admitted on Tuesday that the situation was “extremely tense” in Bakhmut in the face of the Russian push. On the same day, Zelenski had confirmed an increase in the “intensity of the fighting” around the city, which had some 70,000 inhabitants before the conflict. Now, according to local authorities, between 4,500 and 5,000 remain.including 37 children, and most of them refuse to leave their homes.

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The Ukrainian General Staff did not give details on Friday about the situation in Bakhmut, and limited itself to noting that the army had repelled 85 Russian attacks on the entire front in the last 24 hours. On Wednesday, the spokesman for the eastern command of the Ukrainian army, Serguii Cherevaty, denied in statements to the AFP agency that a withdrawal from Bakhmut was underway.

How important is it?

Analysts agree that Bakhmut has little strategic importance. Even the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, acknowledged this in an interview with the French newspaper le figaro in February: “From a strategic point of view, Bakhmut is not of much importance because the Russians completely destroyed the city with their artillery.”

“The Battle of Bakhmut has used massive human and material resources. This investment is out of proportion to the importance of the city,” says retired Australian General Mick Ryan, a research associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). “It’s not a high-value military target,” he says.

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For Belgian military analyst Joseph Henrotin, Bakhmut has served to “degrade the potential of each one”. “Since December, the Russians have been trying to weaken the Ukrainian position by forcing them to deploy forces everywhere and preventing them from concentrating to create a rupture. Bakhmut is only one piece of the puzzle. His fall means nothing if the other points resist,” he says.

However, in the long term it may lead the way towards Kramatorsk, large industrial city further west, but still largely protectedqualifies the researcher.

(Keep reading: Zelensky warns that the situation in Bakhmut is ‘increasingly difficult’)

A symbolic value?

As the months passed and the situation became increasingly difficult, Bakhmut acquired a symbolic dimension.

President Zelensky personally visited the “Bajmut Fortress” in December. The chief of the Wagner militia, Yevgeny Prigozhin, made it almost a personal battle, supposedly to prove the worth of his mercenaries. “The magnitude of the losses gave Bakhmut political importance,” says Mick Ryan.

The Wagner group operates in this area, a mercenary unit linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and which is the Kremlin’s main assault force.

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“It is quite a symbol, both for the Ukrainians and for the Russians,” agrees Thibault Fouillet, of the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS). “But some things that were announced as definitive turning points in the war were not,” he says, citing in particular the Russian withdrawal from the Kharkov region (northeast) in April or the Ukrainian recapture of Kherson (south) in the fall. . “I think we will quickly move on to the next hot spot on the front, which is the hallmark of this war of attrition,” he adds.

An internal Russian question

The capture of Bakhmut, which would mark the first Russian victory since the Ukrainian counteroffensives in the fall, is at the center of the rivalry between the Russian Defense Ministry and Wagner’s boss, who has been trying for months to gain political stature.

In the last weeks, Prigozhin has lashed out at “the monstrous military bureaucracy” and “politicians”, and even accused the chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, and the Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, of “treason” for not delivering ammunition to his mercenaries.

The war in Ukraine has given Wagner’s boss dreams of greatness, according to Russian researcher Tatiana Stanovaya of the R.Politik center. “Prigozhin is now a highly visible actor on the Russian scene,” she says. “With the war in Ukraine, he has gained public attention, and he likes it,” she adds.

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The new statements by the head of the Wagner group come the day after an incident in Russia’s Briansk region, bordering Ukraine, which Moscow says was a raid by Ukrainian “saboteurs.”

According to Russian security services, the group fired at a car, killing two civilians and injuring a child in the town of Lyubechane, right on the border with Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said Friday that Moscow “will take steps” to prevent future Ukrainian incursions. “Conclusions will be drawn after the investigation,” Peskov added.

The Ukrainian presidency denied the claims, saying the incident was a “deliberate provocation” by Russia to justify its invasion.

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The Russian Investigative Committee announced on Friday that it had sent a team to the scene, saying the situation was “under the control of law enforcement.” Russian security forces (FSB) said they found a “large amount of explosives” in the area..

Russian authorities this week reported several attacks by Ukrainian drones in Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. For the first time, a drone crashed in the Moscow region, causing no damage or casualties. This Friday, several law enforcement sources, cited by the T