Let’s start with the situation in Ukraine. There is a growing atmosphere of desperation and panic among Western leaders as they watch Ukraine’s military collapse along the entire front and cast about for a strategy to stave off Ukraine’s defeat. But there is no viable solution. Russian military operations that are closing in on the formerly critical logistics center of Pokrovsk is emblematic of the dire situation confronting the Ukrainians:
The fall of Pokrovsk (Ukrainian name for Krasnoarmeysk – Ed.) under the onslaught of Russian troops will be the biggest setback for Ukraine in recent months and will make it more difficult for Ukraine to overcome difficulties, in while Russian troops apply serious pressure,” CNN reports
Ukrainian soldiers are being depleted at a steady and growing rate — more than 12,000 were killed in the last week alone. Ukrainian demographics provide no viable solution for producing men capable of fighting and replacing those lost.
Simplicius, citing a recent BBC report, describes the dilemma:
The problem is, a new BBC piece laid out a devastating data point: that Ukraine actually has very few under-25s due to the fact that the 90s saw a sharp decrease in birthrates. We’ve covered this before here, but essentially it means the cohort of males born from the mid to late 90s onward is very small compared to the older groups.
Hellbound and Down 