Maxar Technologies showed images of the city of Bakhmut before the battle unfolded and five months later. However, subsequently it turned out that this was not the city itself, but the Opytne village near it.
Bakhmut in the images of Maxar Technologies
Maxar Technologies has been covering the war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine for almost a year. During this time, their images showed the victims of the occupiers, their burning equipment and the destruction caused by the war.
On January 5, 2023, they posted two images of the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region on their Twitter page. Fierce battles have been going on for it for several months. The first of them, which dates back to August 1, 2022, clearly shows numerous private and multi-storey buildings. They had not yet had time to affect the fighting.
The second image was taken by the Maxar Technologies satellite on January 4. It clearly shows that all the buildings suffered significant destruction as a result of artillery shelling. And the entire ground around them is covered with craters from explosions.
However, users almost immediately made a clarification in the comments that this was not the city of Bakhmut, but the village of Opytne, located to the south of it. They confirmed their words with pictures from Google Maps.
Why is such attention focused on Bakhmut?
The city of Bakhmut is located in the north of Donetsk region. Before the large-scale invasion, about 70 thousand people lived in it. However, as Bakhmut became the stage of fighting in August, residents began to leave it en masse.
For several months now, the Russian army has been trying to occupy this small town almost around the clock, as well as neighboring Soledar, Siversk and Toretsk. Almost the entire territory between these cities is a continuous zone of fighting.
The Russians mainly use the tactics of assault groups, literally throwing the bodies of their soldiers at the Ukrainian positions. In between, they launch artillery strikes, sometimes using phosphorous ammunition, the flames of which cannot be extinguished. It is known that during this time, the military and mercenaries of the aggressor country were given at least three specific deadlines for taking the city.
Despite this, the vast majority of Bakhmut, including its central district, is still controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, as a result of intense fighting, there are almost no complete buildings left there, so both military and civilian are mainly located in basements.
As for the village of Opytne, there is no big mistake in calling it part of the city, because it is located close to the southern edge of the city. It is also heavily damaged by shelling, and now the area depicted in the Maxar photos is occupied by Russian troops.
According to twitter.com
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