It has been a crazy last few hours with some pretty incredible developments taking place in Ukraine and the response by the world. Sadly the Russians continue to try and push their way into Ukraine and Kyiv. However, the resistance and damage being dealt with by the Russian forces are immense and the cost of this invasion has been estimated to be 15 billion Euros a day.
What all has changed
It is safe to say Russia is getting irked that Ukraine has not fallen as they had hoped. Even worse for Russia is that they continue to fail to capture the Capitol after spending the last 4 days trying to capture the capitol. Columns of Russian tanks and armored personal carriers are getting destroyed almost daily. A verified video has been circulating showing a column of Russian vehicles speeding towards Kyiv and then later on in the video the person filming approaching the smoldering remains of that column that was completely destroyed.
Beyond the loss of life that Russia is suffering it is now getting even worse leadership-wise for them as two Russian Generals have been killed as well. When you add that with confirmed reports that the US and other European allies have been able to successfully fly in and land additional anti-aircraft and anti-tank weaponry it becomes even harder for Russia to advance. My friend who is close with several individuals who are part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has shown the pictures and videos that seem almost out of Call of Duty. While in a previous post I did add some of these photos the photos I saw were honestly just too graphic.
In what can only be seen as a move of desperation Russian forces have changed tactics. They were trying to capture and hold given airports and military installations to give their forces a place to land and then deploy but they have failed to really hold these airfields. What have they decided to do instead now? Well, that is to blow up all of the oil depots around the airfields really rendering them useless as the fires have been burning for hours now. Not only that though they have attacked gas pipelines in the second-largest city-destroying Kharkiv. This is against international law since this was a civilian pipeline and was not used by the military. After three days as well street fighting has broken out in Kharkiv but Russian gains have been minimal if any have really occurred. Dozens of Russians actually ended up surrendering in the city when they became completely surrounded by Ukraine and faced certain death.
Ukraine has also announced that they think the defenders of Snake Island where the amazing audio recording of defenders telling a Russian warship to go fuck itself might still be alive. There is a change that they were captured and transported to Crimea and are being held as Prisoners of War but Russia has yet to comment on this. Southern Ukraine has held out against all odds considering an amphibious assault was launched on the area and while some minor cities have been brought under full Russian control others such as Mariupol remain exclusively in Ukrainian hands.
Western Powers and Allies
What we as a world are seeing is unity that I have not seen in years now if ever. A US Senator made the comment this morning that he has not seen the American people this united since 9/11 happened. The West has hit the gas with sanctions as well by removing several Russian banks from the SWIFT payment network. They have left some banks and financial institutions in it but that is very limited and they were only kept to have a final deterrent.
Much to Putin's dismay I am sure is that countries that buy Russian military hardware are coming out against Russia. These countries are facing protests at home about what Russia is doing and these protests have occurred in countries such as India and Saudia Arabia which is something I did not expect to see. Countries such as Germany have also announced unprecedented increases in their military budget which is something Putin would not want at all as it means countries close to him adding arms.
More and more countries both in Europe and abroad are also closing their airspace to Russian airlines while they might not be very big in the US or Canada this is a huge issue in Europe as these plans have to find new routes to fly. It was believed that the Russian energy sector was going to remain protected because of the necessity for Europe however it has now been made public that it is not. Germany has also announced that they are going to build two new liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals which will give them the ability to import more natural gas from other countries like the US and Canada. This isn't something that will be whipped up and completed overnight but this is a huge announcement that only further hurts Russia since Germany is such a large consumer of Russian gas.
Asian allies have presently also been adopting and coming on board with the additional sanctions and in a stunning move, Turkey has declared what Russia is doing an invasion. This is huge as Turkey literally controls access to the Black Sea and has been a pretty close ally of Putin even though Turkey is a member of NATO. Moscow continues to become more and more isolated as the world and public see the sheer barbaric nature of these attacks. Yesterday a children's cancer hospital was hit by artillery killing at least one and injuring scores more. No one in their right mind sees this as an acceptable thing. You even have the Taliban calling for the Russians to stop and for talks to occur which is something I never imagined seeing.
Final Thoughts
Tomorrow a deligation from both Russia and Ukraine will meet in Belarus. The President of Belarus has promised safety for the Ukrainian delegation and it is important to note that neither the President of Ukraine will not be attending nor neither will Putin. The President of Ukraine has made the promise he will be staying to defend the country and so we will not attend. While I wish this would be a huge step towards peace I highly doubt it will do anything. I would expect Putin to do nothing less than to demand either mass concessions with succeeding land and probably replace the government. These will be nonstarters for Ukraine and so the fighting will continue.
Since I live in Washington, DC I plan on leaving in an hour or so to go see the demonstrations that are going to take place outside the White House demanding more be done. Depending on how it goes I might be posting an article later about what it was like and what all occurred. Remember that if you care to Ukraine is accepting donations via Tether, Bitcoin, and Ethereum if you would like to donate to the country and its fight against the Russian invasion and war against the Ukrainian people.
