The saddest part is this was all too predictable. Again most of us can make even the most basic of synaptic connections and it was evident over a month or two ago what is happening. Like you don't have to be a master strategist to see that if the city to the west Pokrovsk is falling, the city to the east which was already surrounded from the north east and south will get trapped. So obviously you pull back? What's the benefit of wasting troops here? Maybe it served as a delay to build fortification around Dobropillia but morale has to be fucking low if you see so many soldiers sacrificed. No wonder Ukrainian army is seeing so many desertions and every mobilization nowadays is forced after you see this type of stuff.
The cloud of disinformation and totally opaque command is showing how we can descend into utter waste and incompetence
Several hundred troops are dying for nothing. Entirely predictable, entirely preventable, and even after it started unfolding there was every opportunity to arrange a surrender.
There's a few videos of UA soldiers trying to improvise their own white flags and surrender to drones, and at least some Russians are accommodating with recon drones instead of just bombing them, but that's a huge gamble in an eastern european war and I doubt many will escape alive.
These UA troops have no way out, and never get to even see a Russian. There's nobody on the field in command.
This is the kind of warfare that should not become the norm, its just depraved. At least in the world war 1 meat grinder, someone was taking responsibility and making decisions even if they were often wrong, but here its just utter disregard