The Russians have apparently already entered Hulyaipole, a logistical hub that sits on the first line of defense in the Zaporizhia region, something DeepState map was adamant the Russians didn't have enough forces for. This comes after they already rolled up the entire first line of defense to the east of the town.

I've been watching the map updates daily (primarily from Weeb Union, who aggregates map updates from sources such as DeepState, Suriyak, and direct Ukrainian and Russian reports) and the progress of the Russians towards Zaporizhia has been nothing short of astounding given the usual pace of advances. At the current rate, I'd wager they will have taken most of the oblast, and will start surrounding Zaporizhia city from the east within 9 months. Do note that they have pretty much bypassed the main lines of defense, and can pretty much just advance into open territory, so I don't expect this pace to slow down much at all.

Sorry to make a game reference, but this reminds me a bit of the Starcraft 1 rounds I used to play against the AI, where the opponent pulls every single unit he has from the entire map to defend one base -- and then you take it, you advance further and realize that all the other structures are now completely undefended and you can just steamroll through. In this case, Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad appear to have been that base.

The West is of course ignoring these advances in their communication and focusing entirely on the relatively slow advances in the Pokrovsk encirclement (which also favors Russia, but the Westeners are still pretending that the city isn't already lost). But subconsciously, I think they know that Ukraine is losing badly. The responses from Pro-Ukraine defenders online have become a lot more unhinged in recent weeks, either through easily disproven arrogance, or just by frothing at the mouth to the point where one must imagine steam coming out of their ears. Still, they don't see a peace deal as an option. They prefer to rely on Pro-Western propaganda outlets like the Moscow Times, which tells them that Russia will surely collapse within the next 2 years, which is the same they said 2 years ago, and will be the same they will say 2 years from now. So, no real action needed.

The negotiations are a joke from my point of view. The war will be fought to its military conclusion, and 2026 may prove to be VERY interesting in this regard.