Chapter 7: Honor: The Phantom Soldier of Bakhmut

29. Bakhmut: Where the Persona of the Putin Mystique Went to Die

Zelensky just killed the Putin Mystic. Bakhmut is where this brand of Putin went to die. Prigozhin is – WAS - the linchpin of that Putin Mystic. The face behind the finest terror of Russian black ops, the critical of military operations, the mafia captain of criminal enterprise, the sharpest of Putin’s political will and the Grim Ripper of Putin traitors. Prigozhin is Putin’s SS Gestapo to Hitlers Heinrick Himmler. 

Prigozhin, Commander to the harshest of Russian ventures in Africa, Middle East, throughout Asia and the list to many more. Somehow, the that indomitable, his spirit broken by but a phantom - the Ukraine fighter of Bakhmut. Supporters and critics chimed-in to the waste of men and treasury for Zelensky’s commitment to Bakhmut. Of no particular strategic importance - or so they insisted. Zelensky pressed on - all the same. 

Little did they realize then or even now - somehow, that the fight and victory was not in military, but to a greater reach – the most unimaginable of carnage – the center core of Russia itself. The head of Putin’s #1 and a dictator held upon his door and now, to run for his own life. 

Bakhmut was a direct hit to the heart that is the Putin Mystic, nay Putin himself.  The fight of Bakhmut broke the back of Prigozhin’s dominion and so sent this monster of dread into the great unraveling to those of the insane – and finally, to unleash upon Putin directly. The loyal lapdog that was the pit-bull of Putin, suddenly turned upon the Russian military and even to march against Moscow and the master himself - Putin.

Prigozhin knew all that we hear of the decimated Ukrainian forces. Lost 3 x times over. Or is it 4 x times now. Mass desertion (deserting) by Ukrainian soldiers has been the word. No one left to recruit or fight  - are the reports.  Munitions out of reach to the front lines, those supply caravans within range of Prigozhin artillery, and even then, old throw aways from NATO nations in their half-hearted support. Prigozhin knew all detail of those same we have of Col McGregor talks, warns, cheerleads to, the final end of the Ukrainian fighter. 

So how very odd it must have been. Somehow, each day, anew, Prigozhin woke to those same Phantom Fighters of Ukraine’s Bakhmut. There Zelensky’s Phantom stood, the ones that were supposed to have been no more, to those guns and tanks firing away, though, they too were to be no more. 

And all for what? 

A town, now stripped bare, under layers of Russian bombardment, and yet, that damn Phantom, still center of Putin’s very best: Prigozhin. Behold a havoc so great upon the rank and file as to unhinge Russia’s toughest of generals, not just as a military persona, but as Putin’s closest and so on through to Prigozhin at his wits very end. 

Yes, this master of war, terror and crime is the Prigozhin left to ‘break the code of silence.’ And so for the world, to hear first-hand, that most disparate of Russian military. The infighting, the supply squeeze, and the worst of basics for soldiering and supports. These were his words, Prigozhin’s own rants, publicly – oh, so very public, and repeatedly. This betrayal was outdone by the most unthinkable of any – his march upon Moscow as the mutiny Putin called traitors. This was the hour that the Putin Mystic shattered and the one that marks the end of Putin as we know of him. The Invincible no more. 

Here we find the very worst read of this war by Putin Supporters. They missed all reports, direct from the front lines by the very top of all generals - Prigozhin himself. Never did these Supporters see any hint of such disasters brewing for Russia. Surprisingly, it sounded a lot like those same reports we have been getting from the West all this time – somehow. No matter, Putin Supporters the finest of cheerleaders, universal in their assurances – no serious challenge here or even a disruption to Putin – or so brag they did – for weeks thereafter. 

How did they miss that Putin scrambled, the terror of nations now left to run for his own life. A sudden and dramatic retreat to St Petersburg as Prigozhin’s tanks rumbled on through, unopposed to their way for Moscow. Driven by the madness that became Prigozhin, all from that massive blow taken in his fight with Ukraine’s Phantom Fighter of Bakhmut. A blow, now felt personally and directly by Putin himself. 

To have missed such the historic, the most dramatic and all so very public and yet, Putin supporters insist they have the ‘real story,’ the accurate portrayal of Putin, Ukraine and the war between them. They still insist - even after this terrible oversight.

 Again, the caution: To miss read Putin’s victories in the face of such obvious failings only fuels the risk of nuclear holocaust as pleaded in our earlier chapters. 

And yet, can we blame them? 

We have the best of Ukraine’s supporters to also miss these tales. 

The brass of America’s top war planners, all that is the military backed legacy media and their public façade of politicians, somehow, they too missed these stunning upsets. 

• Starting with Zelensky’s win for America’s Conventional War over Russia. However did they miss that one? 

• Almost as surprising as Putin Supporters still dismissing Zelensky as another screwball comedian. 

• Such blindness to the obvious. It’s called Scotoma. These idiocies as runners-up to this year’s Journalist’s Award for it. 

• Those events only eclipsed by Zelensky’s Bakhmut Victory – a victory not in measure of feet to territory, but against the strongest, hardened by the worst of evils that was Prigozhin.

Today, we honor the Phantom Fighter of Bakhmut for they alone have chased the tyrant from his own palace as no other through the decades of Putin’s entire reign. Putin lives possessed by all the paranoia of a dictator’s last days. This Russia comes with scheming generals, soldiers of competing loyalties, opposition growing louder, betrayal in the air, new alliances forming. 

 This new Russia has a long and growing list of Putin troubles. Bakhmut is where a new front was opened upon Putin - personally. More dangerous to him than any loss on Ukraine fields of battle. The decades of the Putin Mystic to have found but shattered in the wake of Ukraine’s Phantom Fighter of Bakhmut. 

What hell unleashed upon the world by Prigozhin?

What worth the price of this devil’s head? 

What would such a number be? 

Delivered on a silver plater by non-other than Putin himself, and yet, none to see the death warrant signed by the blood, sacrifice and ferocity that is the Phantom Fighter of Bakhmut. Putin’s hand and sword tipped to those commanded by Ukraine’s bravest for the head of Prigozhin. 

Putin is credited by his supporters to have made a full political recovery, and yet, we now see the scramble to repair and replace that vista of no less those a canyon where Prigozhin once stood. Again, Putin Supporters blind to all such details. 

What price to be worth that short fall and all the evils that Putin had of Prigozhin? 

We are indebted to you, oh Phantom Fighter of Bakhmut. Your fight and sacrifice left a dictator to run in terror as he has to the millions thru decades, and so too, recalibrate the contours of power itself into this new Putin and what this means for the world - along with it. 

 My dear Fighters of Bakhmut, NAY ALL experts that talked of your loss of life and limb as nothing but for pride and misdirection by Zelensky. Know, that this story of such nay sayers changes here. I dedicate myself to find the recognition deserved of this glorious - starting today and so too, for the extraordinary you accomplished:  the top general of all Russian now laid at your feet as the glory of legacies of any solider of histories best. 

While the world faltered, you fought. While armchair spectators doubted, you sacrificed. While most of you never heard of the glory that became of your life, let it be known that your children and family will. So too that of your nation, much like those of the worlds other nations. They will come to know of the impossible that was your battle – and won. 

I start with my call to Hollywood. Hollywood, you go broke on duds of absurd characters of fiction whilst the tale of such Phantoms of Ukraine’s most heroic of that fighter unnoticed though to single-handedly have chased the mightiest from home and stature into the beginnings of the great unraveling that may well be the end of Putin. 

And to you, oh Zelensky, the bozo comedian of Putin Supporters, to have taken the mightiest of Putin’s beast at the pinnacle of his greatest – the march upon Russia and, instead, to now leave him to die at the hands of his own master. 

In Churchill’s words of Britain’s pilots: ‘Never have so many, owed so much, to so few.’ 

1. Prigozhin’s Madness is Democracies Ticket

Coming soon….