>>50055
>For me even if Ukrainians can't push the Russian forces out, attacking from the area of Zaporozhia towards the south would make the most sense. They could at least tear Russian supply lines apart, who then would have to rely on the bridge (plus airplanes and ships) to run supplies to Crimea and Kherson. Which would be quite awkward.
That's what makes it so valuable, the land connection to Crimea is one of the few major Russian gains in this war. Without it, the Russian position north of Crimea will be like pre-evacuation Kherson: they'd be able to reinforce and supply it, but at a higher cost. At some point the Russians would be tempted to retreat to the bottleneck at the entrance to Crimea.


>>50065
Bakhmut does have geographical relevance, it's an Ukrainian strongpoint and has important road connections. But at this point the battle is more about the massive force concentration than the terrain. Right now it seems wiser for the Russians to just slowly push into Bakhmut city as they're already doing, rather than extend themselves west towards Chasiv Yar, which would further increase the risk of an Ukrainian offensive from those brigades north of Bakhmut.