Day 388: March 18Here, after Russian forces shifted their focus back to storming Bakhmut, they started conducting a lot of aggressive and risky missions. Despite already trying to force the river and establish a foothold on the western bank of the river earlier this week, Wagners continued to test their luck and launched a similar attack north of the city. Unfortunately for Russians, they were quickly spotted and overwhelmed with mortar fire and grenades before they even reached the river. Last time I told you that Wagner forces shifted their focus back to the encirclement of Bakhmut and increased the pressure on Ukrainian positions in the trenches in front of the Khromove highway. I also told you Wagner forces recently tried to force the river and put a wedge between the northern and southern groups of Ukrainian forces but were destroyed by Ukrainian snipers during the night.The freshest reports suggest that after Ukrainians had cleared this sector, they launched a series of counterattacks by crossing the river themselves. A recent video shows how Ukrainians are crossing the destroyed bridge in the middle of the city and entering the premises that at the moment seem to be under their control, so Russian forces are still prevented from fully controlling the eastern part of Bakhmut.Nonetheless, Wagners resumed their attempts to force the river. They tried to incorporate the lessons learned and decided not to assault the central part of Bakhmut, which has a lot of high-rise buildings and instead tried to cross the river in front of the AZOM industrial complex. Geolocated footage shows that Wagners were advancing towards the small bridge, likely in an attempt to get a foothold in what looks like a parking space with a lot of garages. The video shows that once Wagners got close to the bridge, they faced overwhelming mortar and grenade fire. Half of the squad quickly got wounded, and they tried to take cover and request support. Shortly, the second team ran up to them and helped to evacuate. Simultaneously, the Ukrainian side also released a video of a soldier using a grenade launcher in the Bakhmut area with a lot of trees, and it looks like they were operating exactly in this region.When it comes to the northern part of Bakhmut, the fights on the AZOM industrial complex continue, and so far, the Ukrainian defense here holds. A Ukrainian reconnaissance group recently spotted here a place where Wagner troops went to collect equipment and released a video of how a Ukrainian mortar unit is targeting this warehouse in coordination with the drone operator. As a result, Wagner forces lost one of the closes warehouses to the main action on the industrial plant.In the southern part of Bakhmut, Wagner forces managed to secure new gains. Here, Russians reportedly reached the end of the forest area and captured several streets. The main goal of Wagner units here is to spit the southern and western groups of Ukrainian forces to create better conditions for establishing physical control over the southwestern part of the city and fire control over the country roads. It’s been a while since they approached the intersection, but as usual, storming blocks with high-rise buildings is incredibly hard. Their progress here has stagnated, which is why they decided to follow the path of least resistance in anticipation of new tactical opportunities.The southern part of the region is where Ukrainians have the most active stance so far. Russian sources frequently report localized Ukrainian assaults from Ivanivske in the direction of the forest, Russian trench networks south of the village, and also Klischiivka.Overall, Ukrainian forces successfully continue holding Bakhmut and inflicting losses on the most capable assault units inside the Russian army. In the meantime, there is a lot of evidence that Ukrainians also continue gathering forces to conduct a counteroffensive operation in this region. A lot of videos filmed in Kostiantynivka and Chasiv Yar show an increased concentration of Ukrainian troops. Some sources speculate that the weather conditions may allow Ukrainians to launch this attack by the end of next week. Although Ukrainians may choose to wait a little bit longer because Ukrainian positions on the hills around Bakhmut proved to be a significant impediment to Wagner forces’ advancement.