Ever since the conquest of the heavily fortified key Donbas city of Avdeevka, the real dimension of the Russian combat superiority became suddenly clear to just about everyone.

While Ukraine still finds some success in missile strikes behind the Russian lines, and asymmetrical attacks of a terror nature, everyone now can see just how outmanned, outgunned and outmaneuvered Kiev’s forces have become.

Now, even in the MSM, there are daily reports of just how dire the situation on the ground is right now.

The UK paper The Times [behind a paywall] went as far as publishing an op-ed talking about how the West is bracing for an imminent Ukrainian army’s collapse.

TASS reported:

“Western leaders are bracing for the Ukrainian army’s collapse as it has only been able to slow the advance of Russian forces amid weapons and ammunition shortages, the Times writes.

In its editorial, titled ‘It’s time we talked about the fall of Kiev’, the paper points out that ‘contrary to the predominant view that this is a perpetual frozen conflict, with neither side able to win a decisive advantage, the front line is bitterly contested and there is a real risk of Ukrainian forces being pushed back’.

‘This is the nightmare scenario now being contemplated by western policymakers’, the Times notes.

Russia’s advance ‘would obviously be disastrous for the Ukrainians’. ‘It would also confront the West with all manner of tough challenges’, the newspaper says. ‘The consequences of a partial or complete defeat would be calamitous in ways western populations have barely begun to understand. But we have a lazy habit in the comfortable West – away from Europe’s front line in east and south Ukraine – of wishful thinking and being unprepared for bad surprises’, the Times emphasizes.”

It also shows a poll by the European Council on Foreign Relations conducted in 12 countries in January.

In the poll, only 10% of those surveyed believe that Ukraine can win.

37% said that compromise was the most likely option, while another 19.5% said that Russia would eventually achieve a victory.

And the gravity of the situation is talked about by the upper echelons of Ukrainian society, as is the case of the recent article by President Volodymyr Zelensky, where he candidly says that ‘We are trying to find a way not to retreat’.

As Russian missiles were pounding southern Ukraine, he said: ‘Give us the weapons to stop the Russian attacks, or Ukraine will escalate its counterattacks on Russia’s airfields, energy facilities and other strategic targets’.

Slavyangrad reported:

“The congressional delay in approving a $60 billion military aid package has been costly for Ukraine, Zelensky said. The military has been unable to plan future operations while legislators squabbled for nearly six months. He warned that hard-pressed Ukrainian forces might have to retreat to secure their front lines and conserve ammunition.

‘If there is no U.S. support, it means that we have no air defense, no Patriot missiles, no jammers for electronic warfare, no 155-milimeter artillery rounds,” he said. “It means we will go back, retreat, step by step, in small steps’.

To describe the military situation, Zelensky took a sheet of paper and drew a simple diagram of the combat zone. ‘If you need 8,000 rounds a day to defend the front line, but you only have, for example, 2,000 rounds, you have to do less’, he explained. ‘How? Of course, to go back. Make the front line shorter. If it breaks, the Russians could go to the big cities.”

While Kiev’s present situation can be blamed on the diminished foreign aid, there is also the fact that Ukraine is “catastrophically short” of soldiers, as described in a recent Politico report.

“Ukraine needs to draft many more men for a battlefield that is chewing up bodies, but authorities are conflicted over whether to cajole or coerce, and fear the political fallout if they choose the latter. Since the Russian invasion two years ago around 9,000 draft-evasion proceedings have been opened, according to the Ukrainian interior ministry, but that’s just scratching the surface of the draft-dodging and the evasion of registration so enlistment notices can’t be issued.

[…] Ukraine is perilously short not only of ammunition — especially artillery shells and air defense missiles — but also of soldiers to see off a Russian attack. The average age of Ukraine’s frontline soldiers is 43 — and evidence of draft-dodging is mounting.

[…] In December Zelenskyy said 450,000 to 500,000 extra soldiers would be needed to resist Russia in 2024. The Ukrainian parliament has for weeks been considering fresh mobilization legislation, which would see the minimum conscription age lowered from 27 to 25. The age was in fact lowered in separate legislation last July and approved by parliament, but Zelenskyy never signed it into law. He hasn’t fully explained why.

The new draft legislation has been re-written several times and envisages a call-up of another 400,000 Ukrainian troops. It has stalled in the parliament, however, with lawmakers objecting to some punitive measures they regard as unconstitutional, such as restricting the property rights of draft-dodgers, impounding their cars and blocking their bank accounts.”

So changed is the situation that even the maximalist territorial aims by Ukraine have shifted.

While Zelensky initially declared negotiations with Russia meant Ukraine reaching the 1991 borders, now he is already talking about Ukraine’s 2022 borders which also seems an objective impossible to attain.

It has surfaced in social media images of ‘infant soldiers’ heading to the frontline.

Criticism follows Ukraine Newly recruited infant soldiers that will face Russian Army.

What do you think?#UkraineRussiaWar #Russia pic.twitter.com/lwpITiojVU

— Emeka Gift Official (@EmekaGift100) March 29, 2024

The post End of the Line for Ukraine? UK Paper The Times: ‘It’s Time We Talked About the Fall of Kiev’ – Zelensky: ‘We Are Trying To Find a Way Not to Retreat’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.