Where did you hear that? From what I've heard, it's the Ukrainians that will soon be running out of ammunition, specifically, artillery.
It’s a war of attrition.
If we can agree with the
American Heritage Dictionary's definition of the term attrition as "A gradual reduction in number or strength because of stress or military action", then I'd say that one side is getting a lot more worn down then the other. I invite you to guess which side.
They both are. Who has more ability to resupply? Russia or the West?
I strongly agree with Hawkeye's assessment: Russia. I think present supplies say a lot as to how things are going:
Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines have been rationing their mortar shells as Russian troops outgun them with 10 times more artillery: report | Business Insider
I think you were more accurate when you said Ukrainian -nationalists-. There's a whole lot of Ukrainians that have been upset with the direction of the country ever since Euromaidan.
They’re far more upset about what the Russians are doing to them
Not according to reporters on the ground in Russian controlled areas of what was previously Ukraine. There is certainly evidence that western media is trying to cast Russia's military operation in a bad light using some pretty shady methods though. Please note that Artyomovsk was the official name of Bakhmut until 2016 and is the one that Russia and Russian friendly Ukrainians prefer:
Resident accuses journalists of paying Right Sector and Azov to bomb Artyomovsk | Donbass Insider
They really have nothing more to lose.
If only that were true. Those who are still alive still have their lives. [snip]
And they’d like to keep it that way. They have no choice but to resist.
I find it somewhere between amusing and sad that Ukraine can do more than simply "resist". For anyone in the audience, the very sentence -after- I said the bit about western Ukrainian's lives, I said this:
**
I think it's a terrible shame how little effort has been put into diplomatic initiatives.
**
That's the one thing that Zelensky and his nationalist government, backed by the U.S. and the U.K., refuse to even consider and I believe it's the reason that this conflict continues with the death toll ever on the rise.
That buddy of yours from debatepolitics.com who’s an officer in the Russian military openly stated that here. Now the objective is to turn Ukraine into a field, so he has said.
I didn't see him say this, but even if he did, I think we can agree that his position as part of the Russian military puts him in a situation where it'd probably be hard to be fairly objective. What I -do- know is that Russia tried to find a diplomatic solution to the Donbass crisis for 8 years, with Ukraine and western powers pretending to play along while truthfully just working on strengthening the Ukrainian army to try to force the Donbass republics to rejoin Ukraine. It's small wonder that some in Russia may start to think that the only solution is to neutralize western Ukraine. I still hope for a diplomatic solution though.
Bakhmut is useless to the Russian military.
Even some marginally mainstream media sources in the U.S. disagree with that. Here's the conclusion of an article from the Hill in late April that points out Bakhmut's strategic importance for Russia:
**
Bakhmut has been the main focus of Russian attacks for months. Capturing the city could enable Russian forces to take over most of the Donetsk region. Donetsk is one of the regions Russia has claimed as its own during the conflict.
**
Not mentioned is the fact that Donetsk is one of the 2 Ukrainian regions that voted to become more independent from Ukraine -despite- Putin's discouraging them from holding the referendum. This was way back in 2014.
Source:
Ukraine defended Bakhmut despite US intelligence warning against the move: report | The Hill
Incidentally, the U.S. military was telling Zelensky even back then to withdraw from Bakhmut:
**
A military assessment labeled “top secret” said consistent Russian advances were making the city hard to defend and put the Ukrainian army “at risk of encirclement unless they withdraw within the next month.”
But Ukraine continued to defend anyway, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky holding up Bakhmut — in the country’s northeast — as more than just a city, but a national symbol of resistance to the Russian invasion. Zelensky visited the city last month, long after the U.S. intelligence warnings, and Ukraine has maintained control of the city.
**