Bakhmut has fulfilled its objectives, AFU can withdraw – military expert Hrabskiy

He expressed this opinion on Espreso TV.

The military expert commented on the likelihood of Ukrainian troops withdrawing from Bakhmut.

"We can't rule out a withdrawal from Bakhmut, it's quite possible. If we take an objective approach to the situation with the enemy's advance to the area of Khromove, the problems of supplying Ukraine’s units holding Bakhmut have increased significantly. The enemy is also putting pressure on our positions on the left bank of the Bakhmutka River, that is, in the rural area of Bakhmut. They are considering withdrawing from there. There is some movement of certain units, which also indicates our ability to rebuild combat formations for rearguard battles," explained the reserve colonel.

Serhiy Hrabskiy noted that the southern flank of our group is holding, but it is difficult to supply there.

"We can assume that a decision may be made to leave Bakhmut. In my subjective opinion, Bakhmut has fulfilled its tasks. A task is measured by the enemy's ability to take certain actions. If there was a risk of an enemy offensive from other directions, then Bakhmut's task was to reduce or eliminate this risk. We are talking about fulfilling the task that was set to reduce the threat, for example, to Kyiv, that is, to reduce the possibility of deploying any hostilities in new directions or old-new directions, and this task was accomplished. The enemy has suffered such losses that make it impossible to concentrate troops in other areas. The enemy has been drawn into combat operations that are limited to literally five sectors in the eastern direction. That is, this heavy battle with serious losses on both sides in the Bakhmut direction has made it impossible for the enemy to conduct offensives in the south and north. We can withdraw from Bakhmut, and the map shows that this will not change the situation much," the military expert noted.

Hrabskiy expressed serious doubts that the enemy will be able to fulfill its political order to reach the borders of Luhansk and Donetsk regions by March 31, which is technically impossible.

• On March 3, Denys Yaroslavsky, commander of an Armed Forces unit, said that there was an order for some units to leave Bakhmut for more secure positions.