Although Ukrainian fighters are still in Bakhmut, the city has effectively been taken over by Russia.
It has been weeks since the capture of this city by Wagner and Russian regulars was inevitable.
The situation was dire when I finally got inside the city, at the end January.
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Ukraine’s defense has been hanging on a thread since a long time.
In the past few weeks it is estimated to have only controlled a small number of buildings, less than five percent.
It is not because of what Moscow will say.
This massive victory is a very small one.
It took months of combat, vast amounts of materials and the deaths of tens thousands of soldiers to capture a small Ukrainian city.
Then, read that sentence again and reflect on how Vladimir Putin’s forces intended to capture the capital Kyiv.
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The world’s self-proclaimed second-most powerful military has struggled to achieve its mission.
Bakhmut has a strategic value but is of limited conquest. In this context, its capture by Russia was a pyrrhic success.
Ukraine has invested a lot of money in its defense after the fall of this small coal-mining town.
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Ukrainian forces will comfort themselves by pointing out that they turned it into “a kill box”, causing significant drains on Russia’s military machine.
The Wagner paramilitary force has made a lot of noise about the capture Bakhmut, but it is unlikely that this will be a decisive moment in the war.
Now, the focus will be on Ukraine’s counter-offensive.
The outcome of this horrible conflict is more likely to be determined by the success or failure of this campaign.
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