Comments by "Geoff Lepper" (@geofflepper3207) on "Ukraine Pushes Back in Bakhmut: What Happens Next?" video.

It's almost as if Ukrainian forces put up a sign in Bakhmut that said, "Russian soldiers - don't miss your chance. Come to Bakhmut to be killed by Ukrainian troops and hurry up about it - you don't want the war to end before you get to die in Bakhmut" and Russian troops all rushed to Bakhmut to die before they missed their chance.
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Launching an attack to retake Bakhmut would in a sense be a waste of resources for Ukraine when offenses elsewhere would have much more strategic value. However, if the Ukrainians did recapture the entire city it would have a massive psychological effect on Russian soldiers and officers and the Russian regime and on regular Russian people and especially on Russian trolls who brag ahout the "wonderful victory" Russia has achieved by seizing part of a very small city within 10 months at great expense of men and military supplies. Bakhmut is the only "Russian victory" that Russians have to be happy about affer Russian forces have been pushed back long distances on all 3 fronts. Take that victory away and they have nothing left but suffering, defeat and total lack of success and more Russians will wonder why the heck their military is fightihg in Ukraine and will wish that the war just end. I assume that if Ukraine did try to take back Bakhmut instead of fighting house to house through the city at great cost Ukrainian troops would try to advance quicky on either side of Bakhmut with the goal of encircling and trapping Russian forces in the city. Imagjne the psychological impact on Russians if after hearing for months that Russian forces were achieving great victory in Bakhmut they suddenly learned that Ukrainian forces had advanced and encircled the city and that large numbers of Russian military and Wagner troops along with their equipment were trapped in the city and cut off from supplies. I imagine that if they heard that Russian people would feel about the same as the German people felt in early 1943 when they heard that the precious German 6th army had been encircled in Stalingrad and were forced to surrender to the enemy. Some might ask how Ukrainian troops could make a sudden advance and encircle Bakhmut when the Russians have had no success at that in 10 months of trying but the Ukrainian military is clearly very competent and very thoughtful aboit the tactics it uses whereas the Russian military has shown itself to be incompetent and to use very poor tactics.
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