Bakhmut has been increasingly surrounded for some time, but the Russians never seemed to advance very much, so the battle dragged and drags on. It seemed absurd they did not just push the Ukrainians out, as the Russians have more missiles, more artillery, more firepower, plus able to bomb the position relentlessly but it did not.
The Wagner group let the cat out of the bag, informing the world it could have joined the sided of the surrounding cauldron creating complete encirclement, and thus destroying what military was left isolated.
So why?
The answer is too simple, they left the door open for the Ukrainian military into Bakhumt so they could fight the Russians, and all the Russian had to do was to annihilate them as they continuously advanced into what is described as the Russian meat grinder. The life expectancy of a new troop in this theatre is 4 hours. Why go chasing the enemy when it presents itself for artillery decimation?. Putin stated clearly exactly Why and How he was going to conduct this SMO. To eliminate the threat, de-Nazify – simple to comprehend.
So exterminating the military – problem solved – Ukraine has been instructed to commit suicide by their US and NATO masters. There are several of these meat grinders where between 500-1000 Ukrainian troops die every day. There are now 80,000 new fresh troops ready to defend Bakhmut, so it might take a months or more to eradicate what the Russian regard as a threat unless they get bored that is.