Russian Desperation, Ukraine Resolve

"Our army is fleeting."

"The 72nd Brigade pissed away three square km this morning, where I had lost around 500 men."

"That’s not the soldiers’ problem. It is the problem of those who manage them and who set the tasks. The fish rots from the head. A soldier leaves the trenches because it is not necessary to die [as] useless."

"A soldier may die, but a soldier should not die because of the utter stupidity of his leadership."

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin

"It's official. Prigozhin's report about the flight of Russia's 72nd Independent Motorized Rifle Brigade from near Bakhmut and the '500 corpses' of Russians left behind is true."

"The Third Assault Brigade is grateful for the publicity about our success at the front."

Ukraine's Third Separate Assault Brigade

"In fact, the 6th and 7th squadrons of this brigade were almost entirely destroyed, brigade intelligence was destroyed, a large number of fighting vehicles were destroyed, a considerable number of prisoners were taken."

"The attacks were implemented within a territory three kilometres wide and 2.6 km deep, and this entire territory is completely liberated from the Russian occupying forces."

Andriy Biletsky, an Azov Battalion founder

 

"Thanks to our well-thought-out defense in the Bakhmut sector, we are getting results from the effective actions of our units."

"Despite a significant concentration of troops and loud statements by Russian war criminals about their intentions to take Bakhmut by May 9, the enemy failed to capture the Ukrainian city. Our defense forces are holding the frontline securely and preventing the enemy from advancing. The battle for Bakhmut continues."

Commander of Ukrainian Land Forces, Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi

A Ukrainian service member fires an anti-tank grenade launcher at a front line near the city of Bakhmut, Ukraine on May 3, 2023.  Sofiia Gatilova/Reuters

A Russian infantry brigade has been routed from front-line territory near Bakhmut, according to a Ukrainian military unit, confirming an account by the Wager private army head that Russian forces had fled the battlefield. There has been no comment from Moscow, however, on reports that its 72nd Separate Motor-rifle Brigade abandoned its positions on the southwestern outskirts of Bakhmut.

Typically a Russian brigade is formed of several thousand troops. Bakhmut, long emptied of its civilian residents, has proven far more difficult for Russian forces to take than was anticipated, leaving President Vladimir Putin without a single victory in the past half-year and nothing to boast about at the May10 Victory parade in Russia. Where, instead of the massive show of Russia's mighty military and its advanced weaponry, a single Soviet tank was rolled out, along with an absence of seasoned military servicemen.

According to Ukraine's eastern military command, the Russian brigade was heavily damaged. Despite which Russia continued to attempt to capture the rest of the city. Wagner mercenary group's Prigozhin has repeatedly threatened he would pull his forces out of Bakhmut for lack of ammunition that he claims Russia's regular armed forces jealously withhold in recognition of Wagner's successes on the battlefield, in comparison to regular Russian troops' failures.

 

One Ukrainian battle commander has refuted Prigozhin's boasts of Wagner prowess in battle, pointing out it was Russian regular troops that were putting up the stiffest resistance, not the Wagner group. Prigozhin was warned by Moscow evidently that if his soldiers left their positions in the Bakhmut sector it would "be regarded as treason against the Motherland."

"(But) if there is no ammunition, then we will leave our positions and be the ones asking who is really betraying the Motherland issuing his repeated threat to pull his hired soldiers from the war if they do not receive proper supplies. "Apparently, the one (betraying the Motherland) is the person who signed it (the order to supply too little ammunition.)"

Ukrainian servicemen fly a drone at a front line near the town of Bakhmut, May 8. AFP via Getty Images

"Unfortunately they have not destroyed the whole [Russian] brigade yet, two companies have been seriously damaged there."

"The situation [in Bakhmut] remains difficult because for the enemy, despite all the white noise Prigozhin is trying to create, it [Bakhmut] is [still] the main direction of attack, the main coveted target."

Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson, Ukraine eastern military command