Before the large-scale war, the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut was known mostly as a place of salt production and a major transport hub. Now it is a front-line city, possession of which doesnʼt really affect the course of the war. However, it is here that the fiercest battles are currently taking place, and the city, due to Russian attacks, resembles the equally mutilated, but strategically important Mariupol, Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. Journalists from the Canadian broadcaster CBC are trying to figure out why this is happening. First, why do the Russians need it? According to the former soldier of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and now a military analyst Serhiy Grabskyi, for Putin it is a matter of principle, and for the executor of the task, Yevgeny Prigozhin, it is a matter of money. The Russian leadership decided to capture this city at any cost and delegated the task to Wagner PMC. The latter one turned the battles in Bakhmut into a meat grinder, because human lives on the Russian side are not counted now. Sending soldiers to approach Ukrainian positions and getting them killed immediately, the "Wagnerians" discover the firing positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and hit them with artillery. And so it happens wave after wave ― the Ukrainian army seems to be pelted with corpses. Ukrainians may need the battles for Bakhmut for the same reason that the battles for Severodonetsk and Lysychansk were once needed. In their attempts to capture the cities, the Russians then suffered huge losses, due to which the number of fighters in other areas of the front decreased - and this allowed the Ukrainians to carry out several successful counterattacks. Will it succeed this time? Military analyst Carolyn Hird expresses caution: this may happen, but due to the mobilization in the Russian Federation and the shortening of the front line, this time the Ukrainians will have to kill much more Russian manpower.
An hour before a full-scale ground invasion began, the Russian occupiers did one important thing: they disabled the Viasat satellite communications system with cyberattacks. For a certain time, this created huge technical problems in communication between Ukrainians and allies, writes The Economist. Cyberattacks of this level have been in preparation for several years, an unnamed Western high-ranking military officer told the publication. However, the connection was soon repaired, and the Russians cannot boast of other, equally successful cyberattacks since February 24. "We expected a much more destructive impact than what happened in reality," Mike Eoyan, who is responsible for one of the areas of cyber security at the Pentagon, said in November. "Russian cyber troops, like their regular army, have shown themselves to be weaker than everyone feared." When fighting was raging around Kyiv, ATMs were working in the capital, lights were on, and the broadcast of the presidentʼs traditional address to Ukraine and the world, which helped keep society in good spirits, was never interrupted. In fact, Russian cyberattacks on Ukrainian systems were - and they became the most intense in history, sources in the cyber security circles of the USA and Britain inform The Economist. But the Ukrainian response was "probably the most effective cyber defense campaign in history." The plan of action in the event of large-scale cyber attacks was ready and worked out, and, hardened by previous Russian attacks, this time the Ukrainian information system practically did not fail. Companies that provide critical electronic services for Ukrainians have moved their data centers abroad. The Глкфштшфт Ukrainian Armed Forces prepared alternative communication channels just in case. Western training and assistance were key to this result. Only Britain allocated $7.3 million to strengthen cyber security in Ukraine. And the fact that a large part of the Ukrainian infrastructure is old, "analog" helped a lot. And to fix the damage from some FSB cyber unit, you can just manually flip the switch.