There's One Way Out Of The Ruins Of Myrnohrad For Hundreds Of Irreplaceable Ukrainian Troops. That Way Is Closing.

Ukrainian air strikes may only delay the inevitable.

Ukrainian Su-27 pilot “Viking.” Ukrainian air force photo

With Sukhoi fighters lobbing precision bombs, targeted counterattacks and drones, outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces are holding open a narrow corridor between the ruins of Pokrovsk and nearby Myrnohrad in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.

That corridor is the best chance at survival for the small number of Ukrainian troops—a few hundred, perhaps—still clinging to positions in Myrnohrad. They may not continue clinging for long. After a yearlong siege, “the situation in the Pokrovsk–Myrnohrad pocket is becoming truly critical,” the pro-Ukraine Conflict Intelligence Team warned.

So far, the Ukrainian retreat from has been “orderly,” according to observer Thorkill. This is a good news for a military that has been struggling to maintain its front-line strength as the number of soldiers who go absent without leave from training centers threatens to match the to match the total number of new recruits the military mobilizes every month.

Ukraine is desperately short of trained infantry at a time when Russia, thanks to generous enlistment bonuses and various forms of coercion, isn’t. Russia can trade bodies for land. Ukraine must trade land for bodies. And that’s why, in the view of many experts, it’s time for the Ukrainian armed forces to leave Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad.