Bakhmut Has Fallen.

President Zelenski in a rare archive image.

Unless you are a Ukraine supporter (and in that case I really don’t envy you, as the cognitive dissonance must be getting bigger by the week; this, besides the fact that you are supporting a bunch of Nazis), you remember very well all the statements made by Zelenki & Co. about the importance of the “Zelensky line” in general, and of Bakhmut in particular.

Zelenky flew to Washington months ago, bringing there a Ukrainian flag with the signature of Bakhmut soldiers. He repeatedly stated that Bakhmut was a fortress impossible to take. When it appeared clear to the Ukrainian top echelons that Bakhmut would be lost, the place suddenly became “strategically insignificant” (a total absurdity: Bakhmut lies over a beautiful mini-hill dominating the Russian-held landscape to the east, and is an important communication knot) and still, Zelensky did not want to let it go, justifying his stubbornness with the argument that, once Bakhmut falls, the Russians would use the UN and “the world” to try to “freeze” the conflict. Besides being dumb, the argument once again proved how important Bakhmut always was, as nobody would fear a diplomatic offensive meant to end a conflict after the capture of a ” strategically insignificant place”.

If you want to know at what point the derangement has come (unless they are prevalently bots, which at this point would be better for my confidence in humanity), you only need to go to places like R/Ukraine on Reddit. A parallel reality seems to operate there, with commenters seriously discussing the imminent end of Wagner after its encirclement by Ukrainian forces on the very morning of the day when Wagner announced the final victory in Bakhmut. Again, there might be a strong bot activity. But boy, if the bots have to spread such outlandish news, it means that there is no refuge in reality anymore for the Ukronazis.

Meanwhile – and, if you ask me, in another show of desperation and fear – one notices that, after Medvedev’s tweet to Zelenski and Co. following the drone that flew over the Kremlin, Zelenski has not dared to go back to the Ukraine yet. I cannot avoid thinking that the guy starts to fear that the gentle Russians, who always allow anybody who is… nobody to visit him from foreign Capitals, will not forgive the drone affair, and already have a nice high-penetration missile with his name written on it, patiently awaiting his return to Kiev.

Mr Z, a man with a real sense for comedy, even visited Francis, a guy who can’t even take part in a secret peace initiative without resisting the temptation to brag about it in public. Zelenski seems to think that, as he is persecuting Orthodox priests, he will get a pass with Catholics.

Not here, T-shirt boy. Not here.

So, where are we now? Two of the three main bastions of the “Zelenski line” (Soledar and Bakhmut), have fallen, and the third (Seversk) look more and more like a big cauldron in the making and is, obviously, now completely untenable. As Colonel Douglas McGregor never ceases to remind everybody, the Ukrainians will never have a comparable position in this direction, because Krematorsk and Slaviansk are much less fortunate from a defensive point of view and west of them there is… pampa all the way to the Great River. It does not look good for Mr Cocaine.

Meanwhile, the reckless defence of Bakhmut (in part, surely, because of its position; in part, undoubtedly, because of stubborness and PR thinking whilst soldiers die) cost the Ukrainian a staggering amount of killed and maimed in action; a number which, when all his said and done, I think will hover around 35k to 50k. I am talking Bakhmut alone. The total dead and maimed for the Ukrainian at this point must surely exceed 300k.

I don’t think Zelenski finances suffered in the meanwhile. In fact, I think they are now in extremely good health.

Pray that this carnage ends soon, in a way that protects Russia and allows enough humiliation for the West to make it palatable after accounting for the incessant propaganda that will try to cover the defeat. Not all Ukrainians are Nazis (though they are culpable of looking the other way when they see those who are), and everybody has a mother.