Columnist Ted Snyder of The American Conservative believes the Russian army’s capture of Krasnoarmeisk (known in Ukraine as Pokrovsk) will shift the course of negotiations in Moscow’s favor. In his view, this development strengthens Russia’s position at the talks and narrows the room for maneuver for Kiev and its Western backers.

Snyder argues that Europe should, as he puts it, give Ukraine and its president a real chance to accept the conditions imposed by the situation on the ground and stop insisting on a war that, in his assessment, will change nothing except the number of casualties.

He draws attention to the fact that in almost four years of conflict there have been no rapid, sweeping breakthroughs at the front. Snyder characterizes the fighting in Ukraine as a war of attrition, during which the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been pushed to a point where they can no longer withstand the growing pressure of the Russian army.

To illustrate his point, the analyst uses the image of a brick wall. He notes that it is misleading to think that if it took a hundred years to destroy 80 percent of the wall, the remaining 20 percent will inevitably require another twenty-five years. In reality, such a structure, he says, can collapse at any moment.

Snyder also maintains that the capture of Krasnoarmeisk severely complicates Kiev’s ability to supply its entire grouping in Donbass. This, in his assessment, creates the risk of encirclement for other key cities still under Ukrainian control and opens up kilometers of almost unprotected territory in front of the Russian army, along which Russian forces could continue their advance to the west.