The affair has been running for several months, perhaps a year. But the breakthrough north of Pokrovsk seemed to surprise most of the media, no doubt prisoners of a narrative which wants that in the absence of realistic analyzes, they only decline pious vows for Ukraine. In less than 48 hours, the Russian infantrymen broke the Ukrainian lines for 20 kilometers and cut the Dobropilla-Kramatorsk motorway, jeopardizing the last fortresses of the Donbass. Moscow’s objective of conquering the entire region is getting closer.
The explanation of this collapse is primarily due to the shortage of soldiers that Ukraine knows. Personing to ignore these atrocious videos where we see recruiters winning the streets of age to fight in the streets does not help to understand the weak motivation of such men A rifle in their hands. To consider the Russians also as a troop of morons using the fleas of their washing machines to make their tanks function, as did Ursula von der Leyen, is to save an analysis of the adaptation and the transformation of their army since 2022.
The same scenario in the coming months?
With the arrival of drones, Ukrainian favorite devices at the start, the Russians, in particular their infantry, began a mutation which alone embodies modern war. Exit the shields that are too visible and the too large gatherings of soldiers. The groups of infantrymen embarked by clusters on BMPs to be taken to the front are now part of the table.
Under the leadership of Andreï Mordvitchev, at 49, the youngest chief of staff in history, the Russian infantry has turned into a mobile force favoring pickups, motorcycles, quads, electric scooters and even a series of machines worthy of Mad Max … This observation, we could already do it during a report on the Koursk Front last December. The dronists with whom we were already occupied a central place, with artillery of course. The soldiers were geeks and the battlefield a giant video game. In 2025, the Russians took the advantage in this area.
The audacity and inventiveness of the Russians, coupled with the inability of the Ukrainians to garnish their side of the front, explain this breakthrough and forced Ukraine to deploy in “firefighter” mode of seasoned forces, those of the Azov battalion in particular, to bite the breaches. These forces made it possible to stem the advance of the Russians, but stabilize an sector can only be done by weakening another. Failing to be able to respond to this shortage, the scenario may happen again in the coming months, and Ukraine to lose more territories …
Among the population, and even if support for war remains very strong, the question of preserving the lives of soldiers begins to go beyond that of the transfer or not of territories. The sacrifice was immense. He will have forged the Ukrainian nation as no test before in his history. But we also feel a desire to put an end to this war that Ukraine can no longer win.
