Assault to Take the O0506 Road / The Road of Death (part of the Battle of Bakhmut)
As stated before, the O0506 Road (also known as the Road of Death) is one of the supply routes that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) uses to supply their garrison in Khromove and Bakhmut. It is considered to be one of the most intensive fights in the Battle of Bakhmut, in which Wagner PMC operators and later VDV paratroopers have relentlessly attempted to capture the supply route and recently made it useless by putting the route in firing range from the area that they captured here. They are still intensifying their assault to capture the road to cut the supply route between Bakhmut and Chasic Yar and Ukrainian attempts to recapture this position is still underway with heavy losses.
From this image before the Battle of Bakhmut, most of the areas is just fields and farmlands. However, since the Battle of Bakhmut, satellite image shows the ferocity and intensity that Wagner PMC operators, VDV paratroopers, and AFU infantrymen have faced to control this road. This is the battlefield right now:
Within the thousands of craters of artillery shells are the huge trench networks that the Ukrainians have created to defend the road. Colors are marked for control by the Russians (red) or the Ukrainians (blue).
In this network, Wagner PMC operators have crossed the road using the right-most red trench to the right-end of the blue trench, but pulled back when Ukrainian artillery hit them. Here is the war footage from the Ukrainian perspective, with the PMC operators seeming to leave unscathed from the artillery barrage.
From a more farther perspective, this trench network in the image above is one of many trench networks to defend the road from the Russians to show how much they effort they put to defend the road no matter what.
Trenches now marked from the above image. Colors are marked for who's in control, NOT who made the trenches. All trenches are made by the Ukrainians.
If we take a closer look between the main trench network and the second line, we see what it looks like to be destroyed vehicles blocking the road.
This is the destroyed convoy of AFU vehicles that gave the O0506 the moniker "The Road of Death"
from two weeks ago.
As you can see, combat has been intense, and analysts say that if Ukraine is unable to re-capture this position, the Russians will end up capturing the O0506 road, cutting a major supply line. The AFU is then forced to use dirt roads to supply their garrison in Bakhmut, but due to the weather making everything muddy, will make it very impractical to both supply or evacuate their troops from Bakhmut, and make it difficult for the garrison to hold their positions in the city.
