In order to fully capture

Bakhmut

, the Russian troops today need about 30 more battalion-tactical groups, but they do not have them at the moment.

Military and political commentator Oleksandr Kovalenko told about this in an interview with TSN.ua.

"As long as the M-03 route is under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as long as there is supply through 05, 04, and as long as there is an exit via the main route to Chasiv Yar, namely these locations are under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and to speak of some encirclement, and some serious threat to Bakhmut, no, we cannot," said the expert.

According to Kovalenko, the "Wagnerians" did not manage to capture Bakhmut, therefore, regular troops of the Russian army are already appearing in this direction.

"In addition, it is necessary to understand that the Russian occupiers now have the order to directly capture the Donetsk region by spring. Will they be able to do it? The question is quite debatable. Why? Because they really lacked the resources only of the "Wagner" PMC, which completely bled itself during the offensive in the direction of Soledar. On the other hand, we now see how a large number of units of the amphibious type, i.e. regular troops, are really appearing near Bakhmut," the expert says.

Kovalenko explains the appearance of regular troops near Bakhmut as the leveling of the status and capabilities of the "Wagner" PMC, as well as a change in the tactics of conducting hostilities.

"There is a more technical component, most of the BBM (armored combat vehicles - Ed.) are used, but the Russian occupiers did not have the full-fledged, technical resource, and it did not appear. In order to fully capture such a city like Bakhmut, they need today about 30 more battalion-tactical groups to concentrate their actions in the direction of Bakhmut, but today, now, they will not receive that reinforcement, because they simply do not have those 30 battalion-tactical groups. All they can provide is not reinforcements, it is compensation for the losses they have every day," he said.

According to the expert, in order to increase the number of Russian troops near Bakhmut, the occupiers need to drag a certain part of units from other directions, for example, from the southern bridgehead or from Luhansk region.

"So this means that precisely in this direction, on this bridgehead, there will be less potential not to conduct any offensive actions, but also to hold the defense. That is, such a stalemate situation. Therefore, they will not change it radically, but will continue to use the resource that they have now. And this resource that they currently have does not allow, for example, to reach the administrative borders of the Donetsk region until the spring. And it is highly doubtful that they will be able to something to capture Bakhmut, and in general to surround him," he summarized.

We will remind, the Bloomberg news agency wrote that high-ranking American officials

advise the Ukrainian forces to bide their time and withdraw from Bakhmut

in order to wait for weapons and gather resources for the spring offensive.

Yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that the

withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Bakhmut will not take place

, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to hold the city.

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