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Raw War Footage from Ukraine Shows How Putin Destroyed an Entire City

As the drone pans around, the destruction can be seen for miles. The city’s residential buildings and streets are so badly destroyed it almost looks as though the region has been hit by a nuclear weapon. 

Ukraine M777. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
On Friday, Canada joined France in announcing the delivery of heavy artillery to Ukraine.

Bakhmut Looks Like A Nuclear Bomb Was Dropped On It – Disturbing video footage shared on social media recently shows the destruction of the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast. In recent months, fighting in Bakhmut has escalated to a level few would have expected

What We Know

The video footage, recorded by a rotary-blade drone, shows destroyed homes, apartment buildings, and critical infrastructure left in a total state of disrepair.

A nearby railway facility looks to be destroyed, with smoke billowing from vehicles abandoned near the tracks.

As the drone pans around, the destruction can be seen for miles. The city’s residential buildings and streets are so badly destroyed it almost looks as though the region has been hit by a nuclear weapon. 

Despite the fact that most analysts say Bakhmut is not strategically important to the Russians, Russian forces have seen up to 30,000 casualties in the region since the conflict heated up in the summer. 

The figure comes from Ian Stubbs, a British diplomat who said this month that Ukrainian forces continue to push back against invading Russian troops because the city is considered a military necessity.

Russian forces, highly dependent on private mercenaries from the Wagner Group, have experienced extreme casualties and lost huge numbers of equipment.

“Since May last year, between 20,000 and 30,000 Wagner and regular Russian forces have been killed and wounded in the area around Bakhmut alone; a huge loss of human life for a total territorial advance of approximately just 25 kilometers [15.5 miles],” Stubbs said.

The figure suggests that 800 Russian personnel are killed or wounded for every kilometer gained in Bakhmut – and according to Stubbs, the vast majority of those troops lost are private fighters. 

Zelenskyy Raises Concern Over Failure In Bakhmut

In an interview with the Associated Press this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed concern that Russian forces taking control of Bakhmut city would demoralize his forces and the people of Ukraine. Speaking to the outlet, Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian society would “feel tired” if the Russians succeed in the eastern Ukrainian city.

“Our society will push me to have compromise with them,” Zelenskyy continued.

While the comments are likely designed to ensure that Western forces continue providing lethal aid to Ukraine, to guarantee Ukraine’s victory in Bakhmut, it is possibly the first time that the Ukrainian president has floated the possibility of negotiating or compromising with Russia. Zelenskyy, like Vladimir Putin, has expressed willingness to negotiate with the other side – but, both leaders refuse to compromise on the crucial matter of territorial control.

Ukraine says the “annexed” regions of its country belong to Ukraine, while Russia insists they are inextricable parts of the Russian Federation. 

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Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.

Written By

Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive's Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.

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