"Slaughterhouse on both sides"; A large convoy headed towards Bakhmut VIDEO

"Slaughterhouse on both sides"; A large convoy headed towards Bakhmut VIDEO

Although it looks increasingly likely that Russia is going to capture Bakhmut, the heavy loss of men and equipment in its attempt to seize the mining town in the Donetsk region could limit its ability to launch new offensives in the near future.

Denys Yaroslavsky, the commander of the Ukrainian army unit in Bakhmut, told Espresso TV that some units had been ordered to rotate to safer positions, describing the situation as a "slaughterhouse on both sides."

There is more and more information indicating that the Ukrainians are leaving the city in a controlled manner and are strengthening defensive positions west of the city, in the area between Chasov Yar and Khromovo.

A video also appeared on social networks, which is said to show that, after the order of the Ukrainian president to defend Bakhmut at all costs, a convoy of the Ukrainian army was spotted near Bakhmut. The U.S. think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) points out that the Ukrainians are apparently conducting a "limited tactical withdrawal" from Bakhmut, adding that it is still too early to talk about the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the city.

Ukrainian forces have already completed the first phase of a controlled withdrawal, which includes abandoning positions on the eastern bank of the Bakhmutka River. Geolocated images show that the Ukrainians destroyed the railway bridge over the river in the northeastern part of the city.

The Ukrainians are also slowly abandoning the defensive positions in the south of Bakhmut to avoid being overwhelmed by the Russians and to protect the positions west of the city, which have a much better chance of defending because they are on higher ground. It is estimated that there are only about 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers left, who are ensuring a safe retreat in the west of Bakhmut.

Russian troops will also have to fight in the center of the city, which is on the west bank of the river, unless they can advance north or south of Bakhmut, and urban warfare in Bakhmut could further degrade already depleted Russian forces in a similar way to what happened during the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the Severodonetsk - Lysichansk line, when Ukraine forced Russia to spend a lot of resources during the conquest of those two cities of the Luhansk region.

Defending Bakhmut still makes sense for Kyiv, as long as Ukrainian troops manage to wear down Russian troops and equipment while not suffering excessive casualties themselves.

Russian forces currently lack the manpower and equipment needed for large-scale offensive operations, let alone a multi-year campaign to capture the entire Donetsk region. Analysts point out that Russia will have to mobilize significantly more people and fundamentally transform its military industry to be able to support such operations.

The Battle of Bakhmut cost the Russians a lot of men and equipment.

Although Russian propaganda claims that Bakhmut is strategically important, the city actually has no great strategic value. Currently, there are no irreplaceable logistics facilities and industry there. Also, almost all the inhabitants, about 70,000 of them who lived there in the pre-war period, have already fled the city a long time ago.

Even if the Russians manage to take Bakhmut, the Ukrainians will retreat to the next line of defense and with minimal loss of their troops will be able to try to regain control of the city in better conditions.

As the battle for Bakhmut comes to a head, attention is increasingly focused on areas where Ukraine could launch a counteroffensive. ISW analysts noted that the halted Russian offensive in the Lugansk region opens up one of the possibilities for a future Ukrainian counter-offensive.