Of Course, He Does…

The city of Artyomovsk, or Bakhmut as it is known by Ukraine, is of more symbolic than operational importance, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has claimed. The battle for Artyomovsk – a major stronghold and logistics hub for Kiev’s forces in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) – has continued for months, being described by some as the fiercest in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Asked about the city during his trip to Jordan later the same day, Austin suggested that the city was “more of a symbolic value than it is [of] strategic and operational value,” according to Reuters. Yan Gagin, an adviser to the DPR’s acting head Denis Pushilin, said on Monday that Russian forces have encircled the key city, trapping around 10,000 Ukrainian troops inside. The Pentagon chief, however, said he wouldn’t consider it a strategic setback if  Ukrainian troops decide to reposition themselves on new defense lines west of the city.

Now those brilliant “operational minds” from London and D.C. command those clowns from VSU’s General Staff to throw their best reserves in a desperate effort to maintain some opening for Bakhmut cauldron, which makes little sense since they lose those there in industrial quantities under incessant Russian fire, since Russian Army has now a full fire control (aka operational envelopment) of the whole cauldron and last remaining opening.