AVDIIVKA MEATGRINDER: Kiev Reportedly Sent Elite Reserve Reinforcements as Russians Split the City in Half – Will ‘Butcher’ Syrsky Again Sacrifice Troops in Vain?
Increasingly in the panorama of pro-Ukrainian analysts, you see disenchanted people predicting that the siege of Avdiivka is rapidly becoming ‘Bakhmut 2.0’.
On a fast and shallow reading of this reference we understand that they fear the city will fall with a lot of losses for Kiev – and that’s exactly the case.
But there’s more to this: in Bakhmut – and also in Mariupol – there was the same dynamic at play where, at a certain point during the siege, the military leadership of Ukraine knew it was futile to persist, and wanted to retreat saving the elite forces there to fight another day, in better fortified positions.
In both these cities’ cases – and now Avdiivka – the civilian leadership around President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted its forces put up a valiant fight ‘to the end,’ which they did.
