US Defense Secretary Says Fall of Ukraine's Bakhmut City Doesn't Mean Russia Has Changed The Course Of The War

Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut. (Wikimedia Commons/30th Prince Constanty Ostragski Mechanized Brigade)

JAKARTA - United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Monday the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut was more symbolic than operational strategic, with its fall not meaning that Moscow had regained the initiative in the war.

The battle for Bakhmut has been raging for seven months. A Russian victory in the city, which had a pre-war population of around 70.000 but is now in ruins, would have earned Moscow the first major prize in a costly winter offensive.

"I think it's more of a symbolic value than a strategic and operational value," Minister Austin told reporters while visiting Jordan, quoted by Reuters March 7.

"The fall of Bakhmut does not mean that Russia has turned the tide of this fight," the Pentagon chief continued, adding that he would not predict whether or when Bakhmut would fall.

Russian artillery had been pounding the last route out of the city, aiming to complete its siege, but the founder of the Wagner Group mercenary force that led the assault said his troops were low on ammunition.

Minister Austin said that if Ukrainian forces decided to reposition west of Bakhmut, he would not view it as a strategic setback.

Wagner's group appears to have frequently operated independently of the regular army, or even in competition with it. In a video published over the weekend, Prigozhin complained that the ammunition Moscow had promised had not been delivered.

Prigozhin regularly criticized the military hierarchy. Last month he accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and others of "treason" for withholding ammunition.

In that regard, Minister Austin touched on the differences between Wagner and the military, saying: "I think there's a gap there..."

"I would say Wagner's troops are a bit more effective than the Russian troops... Having said that, we haven't seen an exemplary performance from the Russian forces," he said.