We can speculate about the motives of the Russian government. I prefer to start with official statements from the Russian government rather than mind-reading exercises from western “experts”. Here is Putin’s stated purpose of the Special Military Operation from February 2022:
The Russians defeated Azov in Mariupol last summer. The war of attrition is destroying the Ukrainian army and has seriously depleted the stocks of ammunition for Ukraine and its NATO allies. It would appear that Putin is well underway to meeting the stated objectives of “demilitarization and denazification”.
Ukrainian forces are still hitting civilians in Donetsk, so the objective of protecting the population of Donetsk has not been met.
Putin’s statement may imply that Russia will continue to advance until the end the threat from Ukrainian artillery is removed or a cease fire is reached.
Just stop Bill, wars are fought to seize resources on one side and to prevent their seizure on the other. The destruction of your opponent’s armed forces is the means to determine which side wins, not the motivation for the conflict.
“The ideal option is to announce the end of the special military operation, to inform everyone that Russia has achieved the results that it planned, and in a sense, we have really achieved them.”
Hoping we forget that the goal was to take Kiev in a couple of weeks and install a puppet government that would do the bidding of Putin to the cheers of the happy pro Russian Ukrainian people.
Actually the Ukrainian hold-Bakhmut-at-all-cost approach is very similar to that of the Germans in Stalingrad. The strategy did not work well for the Germans in 1943. It is not working well for the Ukrainians 80 years later.
A classic example of the difference between western European and Russian military strategy is the French invasion of Russia in 1812. Napoleon had already conquered most of Europe between Russia and Britain. Napoleon’s successful approach had been to conquer territory and live off the land, but the Russians withdrew and burned the crops behind them all summer. The Russian strategy denied needed supplies for the invading French.
By September, Napoleon had taken Moscow. He expected the Russians to surrender, but the Russian army was still intact after burning most of the city. By October it was clear that the French army would freeze or starve to death if it remained in Moscow. The Russian Army harassed the retreating French forces all the way be to the border. Napoleon entered Russia with a force of roughly 615,000 in June 1812 but only 110,000 frostbitten and half-starved survivors stumbled back in January 1813.
Western militaries are used to thinking about conquering and holding territory. Russian military strategy has been about destroying the opponent’s army while protecting their own forces. That is still true today.
