Putin has just been just throwing tens of thousands of men, largely from what he views as his private & expendable Wagner Group, composed 80% of criminal “volunteers” at Bakhmut to achieve some sort of victory there, albeit an apparent Pyrrhic one. Ukraine, realizing how desperate he is for some kind of “victory” is leaving enough forces there for the moment to bleed the Russians, particularly the Wagner Group, dry.
25,000 is very close to the estimate of how many men Russia has lost trying to take Bakhmut over the last 6 months
Following the news I can tell one thing. Russia is gaining the upper hand and is gaining momentum. Watching Zelensky calling for nuclear strikes on Russia and all of the apparent frenetic activity surrounding arms procurements leads one to believe that Ukraine is now losing. Would you agree?
Even if Russia is able to take Bakhmut, Ukraine will shortly be getting the GLSDB.