A stunning plot twist.
9.03.2023
The situation in Bakhmut has changed dramatically in recent days. The Ukrainian Armed Forces, which had previously been demonstrating a rapid withdrawal from the city, have stopped. There is reason to believe that Kyiv has set a masterful trap for the enemy.
Yulia Latynina, a well-known Russian journalist, historian and writer, expressed this opinion in her YouTube video blog.
“A dizzying kaleidoscope with Bakhmut… Back on Saturday (March 4 – ed.) I wrote a column that it’s over with Bakhmut, because the main regular Ukrainian forces left it; the Special Operations Forces (SOF) entered; the bridges were undermined. I thought (mistakenly) that this was the Severodonetsk scenario. When the regular forces left Severodonetsk and the SOF entered the city, there were residual battles in the city to cover the retreat,” Latynina said.
From the strategic point of view, the journalist assured, the Ukrainians’ withdrawal from Bakhmut would not have been a problem for the AFU defense. However, the Ukrainians managed to surprise once again.
“We suddenly noticed that the withdrawal process slowed down… As soon as the AFU made it clear that they were leaving Bakhmut, Prigozhin and his Wagner units to the north (of the city) were the first to rush there… And they ran so far ahead that if one looks at the map, one can see that they themselves are under a great threat. If they move from Belohorivka to Popasna … they will simply be cut off. Thus, there is a new stunning twist to the plot,” the RF journalist said.
She says, in this case the AFU and the Russian generals have the same goal – the destruction of Wagner.
“There is some kind of cooperation between two of the three warring parties: between Zaluzhny and Gerasimov. It turns out that they have a common enemy, Prigozhin, who is of no interest to either side. And now the AFU are acting kindly to Gerasimov and Gerasimov is acting kindly to the AFU (one by not providing shells and retain the offensive, the other by grinding) to finish off Wagner,” Latynina stated.
I hope that the title is not a bit too optimistic. Of course, it would be great if there really was a process to create a cauldron. And, it seems far-fetched that the AFU should, more or less, work together with the regular cockroach army to get rid of Wagner. But, who knows what exactly is brewing behind the scenes? I wish that I would know, but I don’t.
Thanks Sir OFP for your thoughts. I was and I guess I’m still completely confused but it’s nice to know I’m not alone.
I’m waiting for the 2nd half of the story…
As long as the cockroaches are trapped and ground up, I don’t care if there was collusion or not. (But as Sir Marcodain noted, feeding paranoia is fun either way.)
I doubt there is any outright colusion by the Generals per say.
However it doesn’t take a statigic genius to see the divide between Gerasimov and Prigozhin or that Prigozhin is weakened and is desparet for a win.
Zaluzhny read his enemies well and exploited an oportunity to jam up one. Then he can turn to deal with the other.
The tactic of divide and conquor is still classic.
The fun part is when stories like this come out and fuel Prigozhin’s KGB inplanted paranoia that hs is being set up, which he is.
But what will he do about it that’s the kicker.
Right on Sir Murf. Another interesting fact is that Zaluzhny and Gerasimov went to military school together. Obviously there wasn’t much choice back then. Also, Gerasimov wrote a book about military tactics. Zaluzhny studied him intently and probably knows Gerasimov as well as he himself. I don’t think there’s collusion either but Zaluzhny remains one step ahead of Gerasimov.
Indeed, this is a classical divide and conquer situation. The divide part is well under way. Now, we need to achieve the conquer part.