Day 374: March 04Today there is a lot of news from the east. Here, after Russians managed to achieve a significant breakthrough on the northern flank, they got extremely close to establishing control over the village that guards the only remaining way out of Bakhmut. Ukrainians saw that the situation started to worsen rapidly, immediately reinforced the flanks, successfully secured the retreat route, and finally ordered Ukrainians to leave the town. Last time I told you that Russian forces had concentrated their efforts on taking the village Khromove in order to establish complete fire control over the field and effectively close the pocket around the town. I also told you that Ukrainians heavily reinforced the northern flank in an attempt to stop Russian advancement. The freshest reports suggest that Ukrainians managed to achieve their objective because, as of today, Russian sources report that Ukrainians continue holding defense in Khromove, which secures the movement in and out of the city. And this is extremely important because Ukrainians have finally started to actively withdraw from Bakhmut. Yesterday, a Ukrainian commander reported that his unit received the order to immediately withdraw from Bakhmut and move into a new combat zone. Simultaneously, the geolocated footage showed that Ukrainian troops had destroyed two critical bridges in the Bakhmut area—one in northeastern Bakhmut and one west of Bakhmut. The Institute for the Study of War commented on the situation and concluded that Ukrainians were rapidly setting conditions for a controlled withdrawal from parts of Bakhmut.At this moment, the Ukrainians have completed the first stage of withdrawal by entirely leaving the eastern bank of the river. This is commensurate with other reports, such as that Russians finally entered the meat-processing plant and advanced towards the central part of the town, right where the bridge is located. The preemptive destruction of this bridge is likely an indicator that Ukrainian troops seek to inhibit Russian movement in eastern Bakhmut, especially of motorized elements. Ukrainians are also slowly stepping back from the southern part of the town to avoid being outflanked and also because there are more reliable positions behind them in the high-rise buildings, and since we are at the point of withdrawal, there is no need to fight for every block. Russians continued to push from the south, but with very limited success. Poor weather conditions do not allow them to be mobile and aggressive, especially when attacking directly from the fields. That is why they are more focused on assaulting the suburbs of Bakhmut. The main goal here remains to get to the intersection, establish fire control over the fields and close the pocket around the town from the south. Over the last several weeks, they managed to advance by around 300 meters from the forest toward the intersection, and right now there are 400 meters left, so their timely success here is unlikely.Poor weather conditions also have an impact on Ukrainian withdrawal. Since they have to cross the fields in the lowlands, the ground there is soaked in thawed snow. It is extremely difficult to use regular cars because, with one wrong move can cause the car sliding on the mud, like on the ice, and can easily get it stuck on the side of the road. Off-road cars, and especially infantry fighting vehicles, cope with it much better. A lot of soldiers just resort to crossing the fields by foot. New videos continuously emerge showing more and more Ukrainian soldiers outside of Bakhmut. One of the videos showed that Bakhmut fighters had been sent to the rear positions, such as Kostiantynivka.Overall, the Battle for Bakhmut is almost over, and Ukrainian High Command did not allow the situation to deteriorate to the point of no return. It looks like all Ukrainian soldiers will gradually withdraw from the town, and Russians will not capture thousands of Ukrainian troops, as some sources previously forecasted. Bakhmut is not the last obstacle in the way of Russians, so it is much better to save manpower and organize defensive positions along the heights of Chasiv Yar, which is exactly what Ukrainian commanders are doing right now.