FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 21, 2023
Contact: press@defensepriorities.org
WASHINGTON, DC—Russia has claimed victory in the battle of Bakhmut and a Ukrainian general has confirmed that Ukraine has lost effective control over the city. Defense Priorities Policy Director Benjamin H. Friedman issued the following statement in response:
“Russia’s pyrrhic victory in Bakhmut—after a year of fighting with a colossal advantage in troops and firepower—underscores its weakness. Russia may be brutal and belligerent, but its military capability makes it a second-rate threat to western Europe. That reality is worth celebrating and should encourage a shifting of U.S. military burdens in Europe to European allies.
“The battle of Bakhmut won’t matter much for the trajectory of the war. To the extent it does, it will be because of the losses suffered there. Bakhmut can hardly be described as a strategic location, meaning Kyiv and Moscow fought a battle of attrition over a place which became infused with symbolic meaning, and is now reduced to rubble. For Russia, Bakhmut’s capture represents costly progress in an aimless military strategy—neither Russia nor Ukraine are likely to achieve an outright military victory in this conflict.
“What comes next is more important. News that Europeans will deliver F-16s to Ukraine is positive in the sense that these allies are accepting more responsibility for their continent’s defense. Whether or not peace comes soon to Ukraine, the U.S. focus should be on extricating itself while also allowing Ukraine to continue holding off Russia, as it has so ably done. A heavily armed Ukraine, supported primarily by its partners in Europe, should allow the U.S. to focus its resources on higher priorities at home and in Asia.”
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