The Russian forces attacking Bakhmut are close to the peak of their capabilities, suggest in their next summary of the Russian war against Ukraine analytics of the American Institute for Studying War (ISW).
Serious losses in the Bakhmut direction forced Russian troops to reduce the scale of offensive operations to the level of individual detachments, analysts say.
Earlier, the representative of the eastern command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel Sergey Chervaty, said that Russian troops in the Bakhmut area no longer attack companies or battalion-tactical groups, acting instead of small detachments of 10 to 15 people.
ISW recalls that this happened in August in the Kherson direction, when Russian forces were also significantly degraded, moving on to the actions of small detachments instead of BTG.
According to American analysts, the pace of promotion of Russian troops in the Bakhmut area has recently slowed down against the backdrop of growing problems with staff and ammunition.
Apparently, the Russian advancement in the Bakhmut area will continue to slow down or stop at all, unless the troops there receives significant reinforcements in manpower and artillery shells in the near future, ISW experts conclude.