Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukraine likely making ‘limited tactical withdrawal in Bakhmut’, analysts say

Kyiv may be carrying out ‘fighting withdrawal’ but still too early to assess intentions on complete pullout, Institute for the Study of War says

Ukrainian forces appear to be “conducting a limited fighting withdrawal” in eastern Bakhmut but continue to inflict high casualties on the advancing Russian forces, the US-based Institute for the Study of War says in its latest update.

Though the think tank says it is still too early to tell what Ukraine’s intentions are, the defence of Bakhmut “remains strategically sound” and that it may be pursuing a “gradual fighting withdrawal to exhaust Russian forces through continued urban warfare”.

Russian forces are unlikely to quickly secure significant territorial gains when conducting urban warfare, which usually favors the defender and can allow Ukrainian forces to inflict high casualties on advancing Russian units—even as Ukrainian forces are actively withdrawing.

Urban warfare in Bakhmut may further degrade already exhausted Russian mixed forces in a fashion similar to that caused by Ukraine’s fighting withdrawal from the Severodonetsk-Lysychansk line, which effectively ended Russian offensive operations in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts in the summer of 2022.