Instead of throwing sizeable reserves into Bakhmut to save the city, which is of far greater symbolic than military value, he has sent troops abroad to train on the new equipment. Since January, America’s 7th Army Training Command has been running a five-week course for Ukrainian units at its Grafenwoehr training area in eastern Bavaria. During its offensives last year, Ukraine’s army largely attacked in company-sized formations. The training in Grafenwoehr is intended to bring these together into bigger battalions and brigades capable of waging “combined-arms” warfare, in which infantry, armour, artillery and other combat arms work together rather than just sequentially—as is mostly the case now. …
On the other hand, Russia’s army is in dire shape. If, after conquering Bakhmut, it decides to plough on deeper into Donetsk, it will have to further run down its own meagre reserves.
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