As Bakhmut falls and Ukraine’s air defenses are depleted, you’ll notice Zelensky is STILL not in Ukraine. Since May 3rd, he has been in Finland, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, and now off to Japan for the G7 Summit. Obviously, the G7 Summit cannot function without Zelensky.
Zelensky appears to be hiding as there is increased talk that Ukrainian officers and intel officials are looking to assassinate him due to disastrous losses and the fact that Ukraine has lost 60,000 soldiers defending Bakhmut over the past 224 days, and the city was still overrun by PMC Wagner assisted with Russian artillery.
Bakhmut was easily the most important and strategic city due to its massive railway system that connected this city with the rest of Donbass. It was Bakhmut that allowed Kiev in the past to send reinforcements and supplies across the east. Without it, Kiev has no chance to plan or do anything, it’s the main reason why so many Ukrainian soldiers were thrown into the meat grinder.
Now, Ukraine will be on the backfoot, has no place (cities) where they can take cover, which opens it up to Moscow to simply over run them and take significant territory.
As for Zelensky, if he somehow survives this, you can expect him in Los Angeles with more than a billion in the bank hosting a talk show.