Russia Liberating Artemovsk Proves 'Kiev’s Strategy Has Failed’

The liberation of Artemovsk (Bakhmut) shows that the strategy of Kiev's political leadership has failed, because what happened there can and will be blamed directly on Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and his remaining cadre, Retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski emphasized.

Russia’s success in Artemovsk is important “practically and symbolically,” she pointed out.

“In practical and strategic terms, control of the city in its entirety allows the start of rebuilding and normalization there for the people of the city, and real hope for the end of the [Artemovsk] "meat-grinder." While Ukrainian forces may still attack the city from the west and north, the decision on who holds the city is in practical terms already decided, the former analyst for the US Department of Defense said.

The embattled city in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) had been the epicenter of grueling hostilities between Russia and Ukraine for months, turning into a “meat grinder”, where Ukraine sacrificed hundreds, if not thousands of men and tons of military equipment. On May 20, the assault units of the Wagner Group private military company (PMC), as well as the Russian armed forces, finally liberated the hard-fought city.

The fact that Russian troops proved to be highly successful in expelling the Zelensky regime’s militants from Artemovsk points to a “decisive change along the dividing line between Ukraine and Russia”, Kwiatkowski explained.

The timing is important here, since it has occurred either during or before the "anticipated" Ukrainian counteroffensive, she added.

Just as the Russian forces returns east for rest and recuperation, "the Ukrainian Army, both soldiers and leadership, should be similarly returning "home" to rest and regroup. Clearly, the Ukrainian strategy to hold ever tinier portions of the city at a huge and disproportionate cost to its remaining military, has failed,” Kwiatkowski said.

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Kiev's loss of Artemovsk may also make a dent in the West's thus far relentless determination to funnel weapons to Ukraine.

“The decision in the West, in DC and Kiev, will need to be made - escalation into a direct NATO-Russia war, which will cost everyone and lead to catastrophe, or to cut losses, and settle the conflict so that the West can stop bleeding money and armaments, and start buying up the western part of Ukraine,” Kwiatkowski emphasized.

According to the analyst, Zelensky is increasingly behaving “as if he does not understand the reality of the situation.”

“He acts like this loss will be not be blamed by Ukrainians on his "leadership" and capabilities to deliver on his many promises. At best, he faces a blow to his credibility at home, and at worst he may not be able to return to Kiev safely from his current, and since the war started, rare, overseas travel.”

As for the so-called collective West, it may use the liberation of Artemovsk as a sign that it is “time to settle,” Kwiatkowski said.

She underscored that "between BlackRock and other Western capital firms anticipating huge advances and profits in the remaining part of Ukraine, the people and the army exhausted, and NATO and the US satisfied that the old inventories have been cleared out, and a strong Russia exists as an existential" threat to them, justifying a new phase of military rebuilding and stockpiling – “all the big NATO players seem to be getting what they truly want.”

“With the complete fall of [Artemovsk], Zelensky's usefulness to the West, and to his own people, has suddenly become very limited,” Retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski concluded.

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