I have little faith that Zelensky is telling the truth about anything, nor that any amount of conscripts who were forced and dragged off buses to remain in the country can turn the tide. Unless you're suggesting that Ukraine is now doing the simple calculus of hoping that the number of Ukrainian conscripts is larger than the number of Russian bullets.

This is what, the fourth, fifth time that the United States has sent in weaponry that promised to turn the tide? Javelins - virtually no footage of their success, and Ukraine DEFINITELY wants footage of their success for propaganda and to boost MIC sales. Stingers? Somewhat effective during the first week, then Russia learned to fly low and now they don't do anything. Switchblades? Not a single success video. Phoenix Ghost? Haven't seen anything there either. The artillery on the front lines right now is largely towed, which almost every military in the world has long since moved past for good reason, favouring self-propelled. The heavy artillery, I have no idea if it's being useful, but there is footage of the destruction of batteries of them, and they're hard to transport in to the front - and if Ukraine had significant amounts of them, they'd be using them instead of the shitty towed artillery. At this point I just don't believe that the Ultra-Peepee MegaFreedom McMissiles will do anything significant. Either they'll be destroyed before they reach the front, or they'll be useless when they get there.

And Ukraine's fuel logistic system isn't getting any better by the day, if the fuel shortages throughout Ukraine are anything to go by.

If I was Ukraine, and I didn't want to give up, what I would do is set up a gigantic defense in depth as quickly as I could with all the western weaponry that's too difficult to get to the front, and simultaneously retreat my troops (who now have combat experience and so are much more useful than recruits and conscripts) completely out of Donbass rather than sacrificing them en masse to blunt the Russian advance for a couple weeks, and send them to defensible positions on the other side of the river, and then blow up every bridge along the Dniper in front of me so that Russia couldn't advance without great hardship past that point. Ukraine is unwilling to do this because of how bad it would make them look to lose that much territory, even if it might win them the war - whatever that even means for Ukraine at this point. Killing as many Russians as possible? Bringing their negotiators to the table? Either way, they know they aren't getting Donbass back, and even if they hypothetically could, imagine the absolute headache that would cause them on a daily basis.