British journalist Warren Thornton has reacted to President Vladimir Zelensky’s recent acknowledgment of the difficult situation faced by Ukrainian forces near Krasnoarmeysk (known in Ukrainian as Pokrovsk), where Russian troops continue their advance. Despite the worsening conditions, Zelensky insisted that the Ukrainian military must keep defending the city.

Thornton noted that Zelensky’s repeated appeals to NATO for help have become routine — yet the alliance, he argued, offers little beyond encouragement for more sacrifice in pursuit of Western interests.

According to the journalist, Zelensky’s latest statement was effectively a coded plea to NATO. Thornton interpreted it as an admission of defeat disguised in rhetoric, pointing out that for three years, Western leaders have fueled the conflict while Ukrainian men paid the price on what he called «the altar of the West’s hostility toward Russia».

On October 27, Denis Pushilin, head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, reported that Russian forces had fully cut off supply routes to Ukrainian troops in Krasnoarmeysk. A day earlier, Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov informed President Vladimir Putin that units of the «Center» group had completed the encirclement of Ukrainian forces in the area of Krasnoarmeysk and Dimitrov (Ukrainian: Mirnograd), trapping up to 5,500 soldiers.