Must read!-----Ukraine’s Hardest Winter

With the Donbas in Peril, Europe Must Pressure Russia Now - Jack Watling

Pokrovsk is not an isolated battle. 

Russian forces are slowly turning Ukrainian positions to the north and south into “pockets” and are on the outskirts of Kostyantynivka. 

Just as concerning, Russian forces are using new long-range wire-guided drones and glide bombs to depopulate towns as they come into range, hunting civilians in Kramatorsk, just as they have depopulated the town of Kherson in southern Ukraine...
The tragic irony about the last nine months of war is that while international discussion has been dominated by the prospects for negotiations and cease-fires, Russia has ramped up the intensity of fighting...

• The number of infantry in Ukrainian units is declining month on month, even if the total number of Ukrainian troops is stable...
• But Russia will soon face its own challenges generating more forces. Since mid-2023, Russia has sustained the war by using volunteers who have enlisted in exchange for massive bonuses and the promise of large payouts to their families if they die. Russia recruited some 420,000 personnel in 2024 and over 300,000 in 2025—numbers that have enabled its relentless, if costly, infantry assaults. But the pool of men for whom these inducements are attractive has been declining...

The behavior of the international community has spurred Russia to continue its aggression...