Ukraine plans to cut off supply routes and surround Bakhmut before de-occupying the ruined city – spy chief

The southern offensive will continue so long as Ukraine has the resources. Parallel to that, of course, are the operations for the de-occupation of Bakhmut. The recent liberation of Klishchiivka, which looks like a tiny spot of land, is important because it’s on a hill overlooking the rest of the territory,” he said.

The next step is to cut off all the supply routes to Bakhmut.

“In practice, this operation looks very similar to the one the Russian’s used to take Bakhmut. The only difference is that they conducted all those frontal attacks on the city that led to such huge casualty numbers. We won’t be doing that. We will try to encircle the city and only after it’s been surrounded will we actually enter the city,” he said.

The operation in Bakhmut is designed to pin down Russian forces and keep them from reinforcing the Berdyansk and Melitopol fronts.

“It has delivered the result that we wanted. For example, the Russians recently redeployed their only reserve force – the 25^th Army – which was only just raised and hasn’t even been fully created yet. No, it’s redeployed to roughly the north of Bakhmut and that’s the place where it’s going to be buried.”

When asked about Russian actions in Kupyansk, Budanov described them as “local operations” that cannot be called a campaign or offensive.

“They [Russians] had certain success a few months ago but after that they were stopped at certain defense lines and nothing has happened since.”