Zelensky is also claiming that his forces outnumbered the Russians by 8:1
That was not said by Zelensky, Vitaly Ganchev (head of the civic-military administration in the area for the Russian side) has said on Russian television... So it could be true, or it could be an excuse to justify defeat and later removal...
The Ukrainians would have captured entire battalions worth of kit they could use
"Entire battalions" could be an exaggeration... But it is clear that the amount of captured and destroyed equipment is large, as well as the falling into Ukrainian hands of caches of weapons, ammunition and heavy weapons... Some equipment of great importance, so it can be said that the withdrawal was hasty and not at all organized as the Russian sources assure... And the amount of Russian POWs shown, has been in a week greater than that evidenced in the last 3 months, so it is normal that it is publicized by the Ukrainian sources, because it has not been something insignificant as the Russian propaganda pretends to assure
Why would one army collapse so totally without a fight when the rest of the front line is holding up so well, especially at Lyman which just around the corner.
Define "so well"... If the rest of the front on the Russian side were "so well" the Russians would not have needed to immediately send reinforcements to Lyman and thus avoid losing control of the area... What's more, It must have been one of the most fortified areas of the Donbas...
The Ukrainian force may have been no more than 10,000 and less than 2000 Russians left in the entire sector, most of them LNR militia by all accounts
What evidence or justification are you taking into account to give those numbers???... Why do you assure that the majority were militants of the LNR?... Most of the equipment captured and destroyed in the visual evidence, correspond to equipment of the groups z and o, electronic warfare equipment that is not even used by the LNR, equipment and material that only the Russian army has and in small quantities, such as the BMO-T flamethrower vehicle that has been captured as a trophy by the Ukrainians, and the only operator in the world has been the Russian army....
What does seem to be the case however is that many of the Ukrainian forces were taken from the Bakhmut area, thus weakening the Ukrainian garrison there. If so we now can understand why Wagner and others have picked up there rate of advance on that front and look close to cutting off all the supply route
Is the risk of losing Bakhmut worth a PR exercise over MAMBO country in Eastern Kharkov? You tell me
The Russians and especially Wagner have tried to advance on Bakhmut since long before the Ukrainian offensive on Kharkov, it is one of the few parts of Donets where they have managed to advance regularly... But although the Russian and Wagner mercenary offensive has intensified the last week (they urgently need to sell some victory), the advance has not been significantly fast, neither in Bakhmut, nor in Soledar, which has been announced as "captured" several times, when in fact the Ukrainian forces are still resisting... But the reality is that those areas, according to the announcements of Russian offensives, would have to be taken weeks ago, I mean, if such offensives were really as effective as the Russian publicity wants us to believe
Do you have a "rate of advance" statistic in Bakhmut that confirms that it has increased "significantly" in recent weeks????...
The Russian advances in Bakhmut, are proportional to the "withdrawal" from Kharkov, so that the publicity does not want to sell them as an exchange???... I think that the Russian forces had determination, they could have taken Bakhmut and everything Donest, no need to lose Kharkov, but we see that the excuses are sold like "hot cakes"
