For Putin himself, the loss of Bakhmut is unlikely to mean anything, it is more of a fetish for the Ministry of Defense.

This opinion was expressed in an exclusive interview with TSN.ua by military expert, colonel of the reserve of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Roman Svitan.

"Bakhmut was once driven into an information trap by Prigozhin. That is, he took Bakhmut, wrote about it on information flows for a whole year, for a year he moved towards Bakhmut, walked 30 km, killed tens of thousands of Russian soldiers," the expert said.

"In the end, he fled from there himself and hung this problem around the neck of Shoigu and the Ministry of Defense as a whole. Therefore, the Ministry of Defense will mainly suffer reputational losses after the liberation of Bakhmut and the escape of the Russian army," he said.

"And this, on the one hand, can be some kind of plus for Putin. Therefore, it will not hit him hard. And the heads of Russian generals can, of course, fly away," Svitan summed up.

Recall that Russian President-dictator Vladimir Putin ordered Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to stop the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and return the initiative at the front to Russian troops.

▶ On the TSN YouTube channel, you can watch the video at this link: SVITAN: Why does it make no sense to talk to the Russian Federation and what does the USSR have to do with it? Shoigu received a NEW ORDER