Fashion experts are giving up hope for a short-term peaceful resolution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and exiting from the country. H&M has announced plans to exit business in Russia. The decision involves closing of 170 stores and laying off of 6,000 employee

hen retailers like Zara parent Inditex, luxury giants LVMH and Kering, and online retailers Yoox Net-a-Porter and Farfetch have suspended sales in Russia to avoid running afoul of Western sanctions, and partly to head off public outcry. It worked — photos of dark Zara and Dior stores inside Moscow shopping malls satisfied most consumers, even if some knew their owners could theoretically turn the lights back on anytime they wanted.

That middle ground is increasingly unviable, as the war drags on and atrocities such as the massacre in the Ukrainian town of Bucha come to light.

Brands now face a choice: they can shut their Russian operations entirely, as H&M and Nike have done. They can sell their Russian businesses, as off-price retailer T.J. Maxx did when it sold a 25 percent stake in the Russian retailer Familia. Or they can continue with a wait-and-see approach.