"Strawman cleanup on aisle 5!"

When did Bakhmut become the goal of the Russian invasion? Why not Mariupol? Why any city? Did Russia post something I missed that said, "We'll take the Donbass by date X or else we lose?" Of course they didn't.

Russia said they wanted to demilitarize Ukraine. We have seen Ukraine's loss of electrical infrastructure to move troops and equipment, a drop off in anti-missiles being fired by Ukraine (coinciding to increased Russian air force activity in and close to Ukraine), and a slow but steady progress along the front since Ukraine's successful counter attack last fall. Judged by those metrics (and others) Russia is achieving its stated goals.

Best estimates are somewhere between 16-32k total Russian dead since the beginning of the invasion a year ago. If Russia had lost the numbers you claim, they could not still be pressing along a hundreds of kilometers long front.

When I look at a Ukrainian military map, https://liveuamap.com/, I see that after a year, Russia firmly holds about 20% of the former Ukraine since last September, and that amount gradually increases.

Setting fictive goals so that you can claim Russia is not winning because they haven't achieved your made up goals doesn't change that fact.

I don't know personally if this result will be better or worse for the people living in the Donbass. I don't have a dog in this fight. I just read the western news and then look at maps and see that the story being told about Ukraine winning is at odds with the lines on the maps.