May 20, 2023. Today at 12 o'clock it was fully 'taken.' Bakhmut... The ope...

"May 20, 2023. Today at 12 o'clock it was fully 'taken.' Bakhmut... The operation to 'take' Bakhmut lasted 224 days. The 'Bakhmut meat grinder' began on October 8, 2022"

That is exactly how, three years ago today, Yevgeny Prigozhin announced the capture of Bakhmut. Prigozhin exaggerated a bit, since fighting on the outskirts of the city was still ongoing at the time, but overall the city really had been destroyed and captured by the Russians. For Russia, this cost 20,000 Wagner fighters killed alone, not counting units of the Russian Armed Forces, as well as those missing in action and wounded. Russia's total losses in the battle for Bakhmut are estimated at 32,000-43,000 killed and 95,000 wounded, almost as many as the Americans lost over 20 years in Vietnam.

But yes, the Russians got what they wanted: through the deaths of tens of thousands of their own men, they managed to completely destroy the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. No one lives there anymore, because everything in the city has been destroyed. So what next, how is the "special military operation" going?

Today is also May 20. It has been 1,095 days since Prigozhin's video. Prigozhin himself has long been dead already: the former "people's hero" was blown up by the FSB, and his mercenary army swallowed it in silence and went off to serve Shoigu and Kadyrov. During this time, the Russian Red Banner Army has advanced a full 16 kilometers from Bakhmut. Fighting is still going on in Chasiv Yar, Bakhmut's satellite city.

A little south of Bakhmut there was the village of Andriivka, where 40 people lived before the war. In this place alone, and in just one 1194th Regiment, from July 2023 to July 2025, losses amounted to at least 592 killed, 297 missing in action, and 1,226 wounded. Twenty servicemen were taken prisoner, and 201 deserted. In three years, the Russian Armed Forces managed to advance 10 km from Andriivka.

You have to be completely unhinged or simply suicidal to sign a contract with the Russian army for a few million wooden rubles, seeing how it fights and with what success. Absolute madness.

Chat bot for the smart ones in the Russian Armed Forces: t.me/kak\sdatsya\bot