Ukraine should not try at all costs to defend the city of Bakhmout, the scene of a bloody battle, and focus more on preparing a major counteroffensive, a senior US official said on Friday.
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The now largely devastated pre-war town of 70,000 has become the epicenter of fighting in eastern Ukraine, with heavy artillery fire, slow advances and heavy casualties on both sides.
Bakhmout has also become an important political issue and symbol. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the front lines in December, just before his trip to meet Joe Biden at the White House and to address Congress in Washington.
However, according to this senior official in Joe Biden’s government, the priority given to fighting in Bakhmout is hampering Ukraine in its essential task of preparing for a strategic offensive against the Russians in the south of the country in the spring.
The longer the fighting in Bakhmout goes on, the more the situation could work in favor of Russia, which has greater artillery resources and a numerical advantage in terms of troops, he reasoned, speaking on condition of anonymity and asking not to be quoted directly .
The senior US official added that a Russian victory at Bachmout would not result in a significant turn in the war as Ukrainian forces could withdraw to more easily defended positions.
On the other hand, according to him, Ukraine would benefit from assigning these very exposed soldiers to equipment and training programs led by the United States to form more technical and heavily armed units capable of launching an offensive in the south.
The senior official noted that weapons for a counteroffensive had already flowed into Ukraine, including several hundred armored vehicles this week – the kind of equipment needed for a mobile offensive force.