Former DPR Defense Minister Girkin: Russian offensive on Bakhmut has brought no results
The former Defense minister of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Igor Girkin aka Strelkov, believes that the Russian army has failed the offensive on Bakhmut, which lasted for the past two months and turned into into a meat grinder for the Russian troops. The city never came under the full control of the Russian army, despite the large losses among the Russian troops and the Wagner mercenaries. The entire Russian "great winter offensive" ended in failure, as Russian troops got stuck in the fortified areas held by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and could not advance further.
Girking noted on his Telegram channel that although the owner of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and the Russian Defense Minister, Sergey Shoygu, have been bragging about capturing half of Bakhmut, in reality the situation looks deplorable for the Russian army.
The city is still not under full Russian control and the losses of the Russian army are so great that even if Bakhmut is completely captured, the Russian offensive will stop at the new fortified defense lines of the Ukrainian Forces. The Russians will not have manpower and resources for a new offensive.
"I have to state that the winter offensive of the Russian Armed Forces was limited to frontal attacks on the heavily fortified positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and generally ended in failure," Girkin writes.
According to the media reports, in the battle for Bakhmut, the Russian army has already lost 30 thousand troops.