Role of holding Bakhmut becomes more and more important

This is reported on Telegram. 

"The significance of holding Bakhmut is constantly increasing. Each day of the defense allows us to gain more time to prepare reserves for future offensive operations. At the same time, in the battles for the city Russia loses the most prepared and combat-ready units of its army - Wagner Group fighters," Syrskyi noted. 

He emphasized that the statements of the Wagner PMC owner Yevgeny Prigozhin confirm that if Bakhmut is captured by his fighters, Russia will be able to launch a large-scale offensive with the use of personnel and airborne units on combat equipment.

• Western mass media wrote that Russia lost from 20 to 30 thousand soldiers trying to take Bakhmut.

• On March 1, Serhiy Cherevatyi, the spokesman of the AFU Eastern Group, said that the Ukrainian command did not make a decision to withdraw from Bakhmut, Donetsk region, but may do so to save personnel.

• Western high-ranking officials claimed that the number of Wagner Group fighters in the Bakhmut area is currently decreasing, comparing it with regular Russian troops.

• On March 8, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced the possibility of the fall of Bakhmut in the coming days.

• The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports that Russia likely does not have sufficient resources to continue the offensive if Bakhmut is captured.

• On March 9, Ukrainian military emphasized that Bakhmut is currently under the control of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

• Serhiy Cherevatyi, the AFU Eastern Group spokesman, claimed that NATO does not fully understand the logic of this war, and Jens Stoltenberg's statements about the "possible fall of Bakhmut" indicate this.