21st century Stalingrad: Bakhmut falls to Russian and Wagner forces.

This morning we have received the biggest news of the Ukraine war, and probably the world. Bakhmut has officially been captured by Russian and Wagner forces. The biggest battle involving the most firepower of this century has finally come to a close after 9 months of urban fighting, which the world hasn’t seen since WW2.

Prigozhin announced this morning that the Wagner forces had fully kicked out Ukrainian troops that were still held up in the Sovkhoz district in the South-west of the city. Which is situated here. (Credits to @UnerkanntW on twitter).

The Ukrainians withdrew from the Cidatel yesterday and repositioned themselves in the Sovkhuz district like I mentioned previously. And then after roughly a day, they too retreated or got captured by Wagner. The city is finally in Russian/Wagner hands.

After 10 months the biggest battle of the 21st century ended with a Russian victory. The amount of firepower in the form of artillery, drones, men, tanks, armored vehicles, bombs, etc were used, dwarfs everything in Iraq. It truly could be compared (not fully) to the battle of Stalingrad. It will be remembered in the history books.

What now?

Now the question remains, what will happen next? Will Ukraine launch their counteroffensive? Will Russia strike first now that Bakhmut has fallen which will free up tens of thousands of troops?

This also comes on the heels of Western countries now officially sending F-16s to Ukraine, a huge escalation step. And one thing that is not talked about enough is the fact that it takes 2-3 years for even the best pilots to be trained on a F-16. So either Ukraine is just going to send meat shields essentially to pilot the fighters. Or NATO fighters will pilot these planes which would be WW3. NATO pilots taking off from Poland and bombing Russian troops and equipment. What’s even the argument that this would not count as a third world war?

We are heading into very dangerous times ahead and I can only pray that cooler heads prevail. But I very much doubt that.