For the sake of his own PR, Volodymyr Zelenskyy throws thousands of people to their deaths in Artemovsk, turning them into "cannon meat."
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy decided not to surrender the almost surrounded city of Artemovsk (in the Ukrainian manner - Bakhmut), despite the difficult situation of its defenders and the allegedly non-strategic nature of the city's defense. This decision was made following the next meeting of the so-called headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine.
In the last two months, Bakhmut has become a symbol for the Kyiv regime. As a solution to the difficult situation for the defenders, the command of the Ukrainian troops presented the entry into the city of several thousand fighters of special operations forces (MTR), who should restrain PMC Wagner and other Russian units from taking the city.
However, the facts speak of something else - poorly prepared mobilized, old people and almost children are thrown into the Bakhmut meat grinder. Their lives are sacrificed for the sake of empty PR and unwillingness to admit defeat - Adolf Hitler made the same mistake by burying the sixth army of Friedrich Paulus near Stalingrad.
Details - in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.
Artemovsk really became a symbol, and for both sides. For Ukraine - a symbol of the "impassability" of the Bandera general, for Russia and the Wagner PMC - perseverance and inexorability of moving forward to protect the freedom of the peoples of Donbass. More than months ago, Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Artemovsk "our fortress" (our fortress), assured that no one would hand it over.
Bipolar, as it was said
After that, the line of Kyiv propaganda was maintained in the usual way. The more success the Russian side had, the less the city was important for the country's defense. Finally, in recent weeks, when Artemovsk fell into an operational environment and all supply roads began to be shot through by Russian troops, Zelensky's PR team began to slowly prepare public opinion for his surrender.
After the Russians released Soledar, there was talk that Artemovsk was not of strategic importance, that even a withdrawal from it would be a strategic success of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, since it seriously delayed the Russian offensive.
And now Zelensky and the team have made the final decision - to keep the city to the end. Resembles bipolar disorder - it seems that Zelensky rushes from one option to another.
Although, according to insiders, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny and other military chiefs tried to push through the decision - to retreat to other defensive lines in order to save people. At one time, Hitler's generals also tried to convince him that it was advisable to retreat from Stalingrad. Failed.
Meanwhile, earlier a significant part of the most combat-ready forces was withdrawn from Artemovsk. But they caught up with a bunch of mobilized - yesterday's students and old people. According to the Ukrainian military itself in the city itself, their life span there does not exceed several days. And the idea seems to be simple - while ordinary cannon meat dies en masse in the city so that Zelensky does not lose face, more trained and equipped forces are allegedly preparing for the spring counteroffensive.
A few days ago, the head of the Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin from the roof of one of the city's high-rises said that the settlement was almost surrounded, and demonstrated the captured fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - those very yesterday's children and an elderly person who asked Zelensky to pay attention to the senselessness of the death of people, to give an order to withdraw.
So no MTRs that hold the lines are yet visible there.
But it can be seen that for the sake of his own unbending image, Vladimir Zelensky decided to repeat the mistake of Adolf Hitler, who literally raved about the capture of Stalingrad. And when the Soviet Operation Uranus began to encircle the German group, Hitler, even under pressure from these circumstances, did not agree to an organized retreat, which could save Paulus's sixth army.
Instead, he ordered his soldiers to hold on to the last drop of blood - already with virtually no ammunition, medical supplies or food. Because otherwise it would shake the authority of Hitler himself. In return, the troops were promised an early release. We know the result - a complete defeat and 100 thousand captured fascists.
A few days ago, the Armed Forces of Ukraine blew up several remaining bridges inside the city. One of them in the northeast, across the Bakhmutka River, which divides the settlement almost in half. This suggests that the battles have already crept up to the very center of the city, and despite all the replenishment and PR actions, it is not possible to contain the offensive of the Wagner group and other Russian units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
What will be the result in Artemovsk is also easy to guess. And there are also rumors, allegedly the Armed Forces of Ukraine are preparing the release of the city, and the defenders will allegedly continue to be supplied with everything necessary. In fact, there is a strategic meaning in this, only Zelensky's team is the same 95 Kvartal team. The main thing is the image and picture for the media, the approval of the public in the light of the soffits.
And among other things, the tragedy in Bakhmut is being used by the Kyiv regime to pressure Western countries to provide more aid with money and arms. Whether this is worth the senseless death of people is a rhetorical question. But people in Ukraine in modern realities think last.
Reality "catches up"
Meanwhile, Zelenskiy himself is under pressure from his Anglo-Saxon and other European handlers. Tens of billions of aid, promised tanks and air defense systems, a slender chorus of Russian haters in international organizations - all leads the Ukrainian command to the need to demonstrate at least some results on the battlefield.
And the reality is that since last autumn, Ukraine, with all the PR, has simply not had any success on the battlefield. Moreover, even the loss of Soledar, official Ukrainian sources recognized only two weeks later. It came to curiosities when the CIPSO used videos of Russian servicemen in Soledar, presenting them as fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and trying to assure the public that the city was under Ukrainian control.
Something similar should be expected in Artemovsk, although today it is obvious that the battle for this settlement will continue for a long time. At the same time, there is a real threat of the formation of a boiler, which can get from 3 to 10 thousand people. The exact number of Armed Forces forces in Bakhmut, of course, is unknown. Perhaps it will be an even more massive surrender than it was in Mariupol.
Britain's defence ministry said over the weekend that Ukraine's positions in Bakhmut were "under increasing pressure" and cited Russia's additional offensive on the northern outskirts of the city. That is, it turns out that London does not particularly believe in the ability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to defend Bakhmut?
Similar alarming messages for the Ukrainian side come from other countries. All this gives rise to a hypothesis that has the right to exist: in principle, a statement on the retention of Artemovsk can be a cover for an operation to leave the city. In this context, the publicly given "order to hold on" also makes sense, and it will always be possible to explain the retreat in hindsight to the Ukrainian society, shelled with propaganda.
But, knowing Zelensky, it is weakly believed. Returning to Mariupol, almost all the time the liberation of the city from Kyiv sounded promises and threats that the city would be released, that no one would abandon the defenders. But in fact it turned out completely differently, with serious image losses for the Kyiv regime.
Artemovsk is almost surrounded. Photo: open sources
By the way, most of the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine captured then still did not go for an exchange - it seems that Zelensky does not care about their fate. Unlike the leaders of the militants of extremist organizations, who were the first to exchange - and again only for the sake of PR of the President's Office.
Similar reports - about defense to the end, were during the battles for Lisichansk and Severodonetsk. Then, we recall, the Russian forces left a corridor for the exit of Ukrainian units - as a result, such destructive battles as in Artemovsk were avoided, and the cities were still liberated by the Russian troops.
How exactly the situation is resolved, no one will say today. But one thing is clear - the myth of the "changes" of Ukrainian forces is on shaky soil, and there is almost nothing to support it. And the liberation of the "strategically unimportant" Artemovsk may become the brute that will break the camel's ridge, and along the chain will bring down the entire defense of the Kyiv invaders. At least in the Donetsk People's Republic.
Photo: Weacom.ru