Day 339: January 28Today there is some bad news from the east. The most important developments happened to the southwest of Bakhmut. While the capture of Opytne did not give the Russians any tactical advantage, the capture of Klischiivka opened access to a lot of possibilities. The Russians immediately moved in two directions: Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar. As of now, the Russians have already cleared the forest, and today the first clashes took place in the rural zone north of the forest. There are a lot of small houses here, which means that there is a possibility of maintaining a permanent presence in this region, and if the Russians achieve it, they will establish physical control over the road that connects Ivanivske and Bakhmut. But this is not the worst thing. As you remember, the Ukrainians were not using this road anyways because it was too close to the front line, and there are other safer roads. The worst result of establishing control over this rural area is that the Russians will have all other Ukrainian roads in the back in direct vision. If we look at the topographic map, we can see that this rural area is located on a hill, while the last Ukrainian supply road is in the lowlands and is only 3 km away from it. The good news is that taking control over this region is not easy as there are a lot of powerful Ukrainian positions around, which makes it very easy to push the Russians back. The Russians would need to penetrate all Ukrainian positions south of Bakhmut by around 1 km and simultaneously storm Ivanivske in order to secure this position. The Ukrainians understand the importance of this position, and so far, they did not allow the Russians to even enter it. And even if the Russians start to really push here, there is still a number of adjustments that the Ukrainians could make.The first thing the Ukrainians will likely do in case of an increased threat is adjusting their defense. In my estimation, the first step would be to leave the eastern part of Bakhmut. By doing this, the Ukrainians would achieve three things. Firstly, the Ukrainians would shorten the front line from 12 km to 9 km, meaning that the demand for troops and supplies may drop by 25%. Secondly, this move would allow quickly reacting in the case of urgent withdrawal, as all the forces will be on the same bank of the river. Thirdly, the Ukrainians will move from the least fortified positions on the outskirts to the most fortified positions, such as high-rise buildings, industrial zones, and railway stations.Overall, even though the Russians achieved little to no progress by trying to take Bakhmut in front, the Russians did manage to establish control over less fortified positions around Bakhmut, which threatens to cut off Ukrainian supplies. Such developments are not surprising, as the area to the south of Bakhmut is too vast, allowing the Russians to attack sparsely located villages one by one, and however well-fortified they may have been, constant artillery fire and airstrikes slowly make sure that there is nothing left to defend.As the Institute for the Study of War concludes, the Ukrainian defense of Bakhmut is still a strategically sound effort because if the Ukrainians abandoned such towns-fortresses prematurely, it would force them to construct hasty defensive positions in less favorable terrain. But by deciding to hold the ground, the Ukrainians ensured that the Russians have been funneling their manpower and equipment into the area since May 2022 with no operational, let alone strategic, success.