Day 393: March 23Today the biggest news is coming from the east. Here, Ukrainians tried to widen the corridor to Bakhmut and push Russian Anti-Tank Guided Missile systems away from the road. Ukrainians were facing a lot of difficulties in dealing with ATGMs, but when one Ukrainian crew started detecting and destroying these systems with Javelins, the situation rapidly shifted in Ukrainian favor.Last time I told you that Ukrainians conducted a successful counterattack in the southern part of the region and improved the security of the Ivanivske highway, which they immediately started to use. I also told you that Ukrainian reconnaissance and HIMARS crews are destroying up to 3 Russian assault units per day before they even launch their assaults.The freshest reports suggest that Ukrainians continue to spot and destroy Russian assault units while they are walking toward their target. Today Ukrainian 3rd Assault Brigade released a video showing how they detected another assault squad north of Bakhmut, communicated the coordinates to the artillery team, and prevented the attack by killing the enemy on the approach.The latest reports also indicate that after Ukrainians increased the territory under their control in front of the Ivanivske highway, they switched their focus to the Khromove highway. Prior to conducting a counterattack, Ukrainian forces conducted an artillery preparation on the enemy positions in the tree lines, and as it would be revealed later, this ensured that Ukrainian assault would only need to deal with half of the squad. When the assault was launched, Ukrainians approached the trenches and started a close combat engagement. A second team of drone operators helped those on the ground to navigate the situation and informed them about the activity in the Russian trenches. As a result, the attack was successful, and the Russians lost their positions in the tree lines.However, this was only the beginning, as Russians are holding many positions along the Khromove highway. Russian side recently released footage showing how they are using anti-tank guided missiles or ATGMs in the tree lines to target Ukrainian vehicles. Today, the Ukrainian side released footage showing how they started spotting Russian ATGM positions and then destroying them with Javelins.In order to reduce Russian fire control over the road even more, Ukrainians also put emphasis on destroying Russian mortar crews. This task proved to be much more difficult because they do not have to be located close to the contact line. However, today Ukrainian 127th Brigade released a video of how they tracked down a Russian car and discovered that it was supplying mortar crews with ammunition. As a result, they destroyed the vehicle with a drone and communicated the enemy mortar positions to the artillery.Ukrainian Intelligence has recently intercepted a Russian call, which revealed that Russian forces around Bakhmut are leaving their positions. It mentioned that there are 119 cases of desertion and that 70 were already found and will likely go to jail.This is not surprising given the level of losses that Russians are incurring near Bakhmut. American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley stated in an interview that nearly 1,200 Russian soldiers were recently killed in a single day around Bakhmut when Russians tried to overwhelm Ukrainians with attacks from all sides.UK military advisor Ian Stubbs also recently discussed the situation around Bakhmut and told the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe that Russia has lost up to 30 000 Wagner and regular forces in its failed attempt to capture Bakhmut. Such a magnitude of losses is equal to around 3 divisions or 1 full corps.And looks like it is true because several days ago, the Head of the Wagner Group, Prigozhin, announced that he is planning to recruit the same number of militants by May – 30 000. All of that strongly indicated that the information regarding Wagner Group’s problems is quite reliable.