Deutsche Welle:
Ukrainian top generals have vowed to continue to defend the contended eastern city of Bakhmut amid reports suggesting that Russia is inching closer to capturing it.
After months of fighting in and around Bakhmut, Russian forces remain adamant about capturing the city, which would be their first significant battlefield victory in some six months.
Western strategists and officials suggest a Russian occupation of the city would be of more symbolic than strategic value.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, however, said control of Bakhmut would allow Moscow's forces to mount further attacks deeper inside Ukraine.
"The city is an important hub for defending Ukrainian troops in the Donbas. Taking it under control will allow further offensive actions to be conducted deep into Ukraine's defensive lines," he said.
Reports from the battlefield suggest that Ukrainian troops have recently been reinforcing positions west of the city, apparently preparing to withdraw.
However, in his nightly address on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he held discussions with top generals and they agreed "not to withdraw."
"The command unanimously supported this position. There were no other positions. I told the commander-in-chief to find the appropriate forces to help our guys in Bakhmut," Zelenskyy said.
The battle has drained both sides' artillery reserves, with thousands of shells fired daily.
----------------------
It makes sense to defend Bachmut:
1. It binds Russian forces and attrites them drastically. For as long as the Russian losses are dysproportionally bigger than the Ukrianian losses, it makes sense to continue doing that.
2. It leaves the Russians distracted while the Ukrainians collect forces elsewhere in preparation of an own offensive south of Bachmut.
3. It buys time for Ukraine.
4. It gives Russia the time to let its conficts in leadership simmering on and developing further.
5. It protects urban settlement areas west of Bachmut, and leaves Ukrainian artillery in reach of eastern supply lines of the Russians that run in North-Southern direction, east of Bachmut. That extends these supply lines, forcing the Russians to invest more time.
6. I thinders the Russians to take positions for artillery from where they could strike deep into the third - and last - defence line of the ukrainians.
Bachmut may not have a value on the operational level as many Western analysts claim, but I strongly think on the tactical and strategic level it has. Questioning the above reasons may come from trying to use standards from peacetime-thinking for assessing the needs of war.To me, Bachmut is pretty much an Ukrainian deception that prepares the offensive they plan. We will see when the Western tanks have arrived and the according batallion(s) have been formed up.