Thread by @TheStudyofWar

The Battle of #Bakhmut exposed several key flaws in the Russian planning and conduct of operational maneuver. The #Kremlin’s fixation with Bakhmut also shows that #Russia has not learned lessons from the first phases of the war. isw.pub/Bakhmut052423

Bakhmut Retrospective🧵#2:

https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1661362252593655810

2/ The Russian military command continued to pursue a relentless assault on #Bakhmut after the city lost its original operational significance and failed to adjust its military objectives appropriately.

3/ The #Kremlin, evidently, chased after any potential victory to generate informational effects and allowed #Prigozhin to expend a large amount of Russian ammo and thousands of prisoner recruits, & then more professional forces to maintain a battle of no operational significance

4/ #Prigozhin also continued this battle to gain desired political standing in #Russia – likely without the intent to pursue the original goal of conducting a wider encirclement of #Donbas.

5/ The #Kremlin’s fixation with #Bakhmut indicates that #Russia has not learned lessons from the first phases of the war.

6/ The Russian military command continues to overestimate Russian military capabilities and has not mastered time and space relationships in this war at its current level of effectiveness.

7/ The Russian military command also continues to pursue ill-informed political objectives at the expense of Russian personnel and resources. isw.pub/Bakhmut052423

8/ Indeed, Moscow stubbornly clung to its efforts to seize #Bakhmut regardless of the operational context and ultimately took the destroyed city at a hideous cost in manpower and materiel only to cede the initiative in the Bakhmut area to Ukraine.

9/ Ukrainian forces have meanwhile been conducting local counterattacks on #Bakhmut’s flanks, having regained the initiative following #Wagner’s culmination.

10/ The decision to allow the battle of #Bakhmut to end or force it into a new phase now lies with Kyiv. #Ukraine thus now has the initiative at every level of war across almost the entire front. isw.pub/Bakhmut052423