 After Bakhmut, the Russians also wipe out the city of Marienka. Ukrainian soldiers in Marienka almost daily repulse the attacks of the invaders, who outnumber the defending garrison of the city in the number of soldiers, tanks and other weapons. But the capture of the city will be an important victory for the aggressor. The New York Times writes about this in an article on the defense of Marienka. A small strategic city has been reduced to a pile of smoking rubble and is now a few blocks from the fall. The soldiers here are fighting house by house, room by room, so close that they can hear each other's cries for help. The newspaper writes, The authors of the article note that the fate of Ukraine is not decided in Marienka or Avdivka, but each such defense node matters. The loss of even one city can become a gap through which the Russian army can pour in. Now the 79th Air Assault Brigade, which became famous in the battles for the Donetsk airport at the very beginning of the war, is defending in Marienka. The Russians outnumber us four to one in soldiers, six to one in artillery. Some of their guys are real professionals. You can see it in the way they move, in their tactics, the way their tanks move, but others, they're just cannon fodder. These are unprepared Russian troops making blind attacks, which are destroyed in large numbers, said one of the Ukrainian soldiers. If once there were about 10,000 people in Marienka, now there is not a single civilian left. And as the Russians advance, they blow up all the apartment buildings, private houses and outbuildings, turning Marienka into an apocalyptic desert. Step by step, meter by meter, the Russians are destroying the buildings in front of us. They start from the top floor and level everything. It doesn't matter if we use them or not, said another Ukrainian soldier. According to a fighter who fought for the Donetsk airport, the situation in Marienka is now more difficult. However, the importance of the city is great, as it is located at critical crossroads. If the Ukrainians are completely ousted from here, the occupiers can move on to Kurakovo, Volodya and Pokrovsk.