Day 419: April 18Previously, I told you that Russian conventional forces conducted an intense attack in the northern part of the city and, due to the sheer manpower superiority, forced Ukrainians to step back from their positions. I also told you that by the end of the day, Ukrainians managed to break the momentum by focusing their artillery fire on this region, which allowed them to start launching limited counterattacks.The freshest reports indicate that over the last two days, Ukrainian forces have been rapidly gaining momentum. The first confirmation of Ukrainian success came from a Ukrainian fighter from the Aidar Battalion. He stated that Ukrainians recaptured at least half of the high-rise buildings on the outer edge. Later, footage of the explosion was published, showing how the Municipal Department of Culture was reduced to rubble. The explosion was controlled and conducted by Ukrainian forces, which clearly suggests that Ukrainians returned control over the second half of the high-rise buildings. Later, this information was confirmed by Russian forces that showed that Russians were trying to cross the alley. This means that today Ukrainians have achieved two crucial objectives. Firstly, by destroying the building in the middle of the wide and open alley, Ukrainians significantly complicated Russian assaults because this building was the only thing that provided them cover. Secondly, Ukrainians secured control over the outer edge of the city, which allows destroying all Russian assault units that try to approach Khromove and cut one of the main supply roads to Bakhmut. Russians also partially retreated from the residential area with small houses. Today’s combat footage showed how Russians are either retreating or abandoning their positions. This group was spotted near the railways, and not all of them survived, which clearly indicates Ukrainian presence. After seeing that almost all gains generated by their extremely costly offensive effort had disappeared, Russians resorted to intense shelling. Ukrainian fighters reported that shelling was indeed very intense, although Russians were late as the most important strong points were already recaptured. As Russians noticed that the situation did not change in their favor, they started using massive guided air bombs. A Ukrainian fighter from the Aidar Battalion reported that in the aftermath of artillery and aviation strikes, the residential area with small houses had been almost completely wiped out, so from now on, neither Ukrainians nor Russians cannot maintain a permanent presence in this region. Russians also changed their tactic, and right now, they are assaulting Ukrainian positions in the following way. Firstly, they focus their artillery fire on a very narrow section of the front and then send a human wave to try and capture a quarter. If it doesn’t work, then they repeat the procedure. So far, it doesn’t work at all, and in the evening, one of the fighters said that today Russians lost here at least 200 men. Heavy use of artillery and human waves consisting of large assault units is exactly how regular Russian forces work in other directions, which once again indicates that commanders of airborne forces took over the operation in Bakhmut. Overall, the recent Russian offensive effort to collapse the Ukrainian defense in Bakhmut failed. It looks like the commanders of the airborne forces tried to simultaneously take over the operation, surprise Ukrainians with new tactics, and get the credit for ending the Battle for Bakhmut. Unfortunately for Russians, Ukrainians quickly understood that Russian forces were overly concentrated and started retreating whenever necessary, while Ukrainian artillery was eliminating hundreds of attackers. As a result, Russians ran out of men to sustain the same intensity of attacks, their attack imploded, and Ukrainians gradually took back almost all territories from which they temporarily retreated.