I think Russia has no reason to take Bakhmut...why chase enemy when other side is readily bringing new soldiers for
easy kill
Have you taken a look at the map? What can you see in the vicinity of Bakhmut? Elevated positions with cover of rocks, trees, hills, river banks? Do you see anything in there that looks like a good attacking position? No, you do not, it is exactly the opposite - You will see a nightmare for the attacker, were they are detected klicks away from the defending positions. Would you like to be the attacker there Branko?
Can't people just
google before saying something silly?
The only reason to attack it is because it is the Donbas and the RF needs to take the Donbas to be able to sell some short of "victory" to the world. Wagnerites are expendable, people from Dagestan and other satellites of Moscow are spendable.
As I write this post, I am looking at the videos of Ukrainians training in Leopards. They seem veeeery pleased.
Geographically, Bakhmut is located in a lowland, and all the dominant heights around the city have long been controlled by Wagner. I dont know what political and image dividends Ukraine is trying to extract by continuing to hold the city, but from a purely military point of view, this is madness, comparable to exchanging a bishop for a pawn in a chess game. The sacrifice may be justified if you have a sharp attacking combination play, but now it looks like a rather pathetic attempt to just buy some time to prepare for the mythical counter-offensive to Melitopol to cut the land corridor to the Crimea. It seems that this is the ultimate dream of Ukrainian military strategists.