Russia’s offensive seemingly fails as additional forces are transferred to Bakhmut – Ukraine’s intelligence

The transfer of additional reserves by the Russian Federation to the direction of Bakhmut indicates the failure of their offensive actions because the fortress city of Bakhmut, although almost entirely destroyed by the enemy, is holding on.

Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, said this in a comment to Ukrinform.

"The defense operation of the Ukrainian defenders continues; the Bakhmut fortress is holding. Yes, for Ukraine, it is worth great efforts, the heroic efforts of our defenders, but the fact that the enemy is forced to transfer additional reserves to continue the operation on Bakhmut indicates failures, in general, their offensive actions," the intelligence representative emphasized.

Yusov noted that all the best-prepared reserves of the Russian army had already been used in a full-scale invasion.

"Now, the army is not the same composition that was at the beginning of the invasion, and the fact that these reserves are transferred to the Bakhmut direction means that they will not be used in other directions of the front. And this is also one of the achievements of the Ukrainian defenders," he emphasized Yusov.

The intelligence officer added that the much-publicized Russian winter offensive was reduced to operations in several directions without results.

"We see a completely unsuccessful campaign for the Russian occupiers in Bakhmut. Generally speaking, the much–publicized "great winter offensive" was limited to operations in only a few eastern directions with no noteworthy accomplishments.

After all, they faced another task after many failures — to occupy the Ukrainian Donbas by the end of March. It did not work and failed.

To occupy Bakhmut until May 9 – now we see that the situation is developing in a different way when representatives of the occupiers are publicly talking about the fact that they have to retreat," Yusov said.

It should be noted that, according to British intelligence, in the last four days, the Russian Federation transferred several battalions of invaders to strengthen the Bakhmut front.
For reference:

In mid–May, the relocation of Russian forces to Bakhmut occurred concurrently with the tactical successes of Ukrainian troops on the wings.

On May 19, a total of 80 hostilities occurred on five battlefields between the Ukrainian Defense Forces and the Russian army. Ukrainian aviation completed eight bombing runs against the opponent's anti–aircraft missile system infrastructure.

In addition, during the past day, May 19, the Ukrainian army eliminated almost 700 invaders; in total, since the beginning of the Russian aggression, the occupiers have lost more than 202,400 soldiers.