26 hours into the war

by Graham Seibert, an American in Kiev:

 

 

Things are very quiet at 7:15 this Friday morning. No aircraft, no cars on the street I can hear, I don't hear the trains running. Of course no construction on the new metro bridge through our neighborhood. We still have light, telephones and Internet.

Oksana spent the day glued to the news. Most people can't stay away from in times of crisis. In my life the same thing is happened on the day Kennedy was assassinated, the day Princess Diana died and 911. I went shopping in the morning, inflated the tires on my bike because I think I will need it, and worked out on the exercise machine. I got a call from Gary in London about 7 o'clock bringing me fully up to date.

Oksana and Eddie had mentioned during the day that there were Russian helicopters on Air Force bases around Kyiv, and shooting from helicopters in Kharkiv and Mariupol. Helicopters are easy to take out with man-carried missiles. The fact that they were able to operate with impunity told the story. With no worries about aerial attack, the Russian tanks could simply advance along roads. They progressed amazingly quickly.

People from around the country reported them in front of their houses, across the street and so on. Russia possesses a great many. They weren't shooting at anything, just making sure that everybody knew they were there.

Gary told me that Ukrainian troops had surrendered in large numbers. Another friend Gary here in Ukraine called to say that Pres. Zelensky was offering to give a weapon to any man of any age willing to step up and defend the country. That sounds like desperation – like the Germans giving guns to sub teen boys in the last days of World War II. He and I agreed that you wouldn't want to use one if you got it, and you wouldn't want to be on the list of people that had them. We're keeping our heads down.

My opinion has been that Russia could conquer Ukraine easily. How easily, I was off by an order of magnitude. Judging from the quiet, it is all over after 24 hours.

What comes next? There is speculation about Russia's further targets. Word is that they sent armored columns down in Western Ukraine to cut off the retreat of the (super patriots fascists, right wing) who have been a constant thorn in Russia's side since Soviet days and were the backbone of the Ukrainian fighting forces in Donbass. That would be consistent with Putin's claim that they are going to "de-nazify" Ukraine.

There is also speculation that Russia wants to shut down the 11 United States sponsored biowarfare labs here in Ukraine. I've been reading quite a bit about them the last couple of months. The indications are that they are doing the same sort of work as Fort Dietrich and Wuhan. Some report that there have been outbreaks of strange diseases here in Ukraine. See dailyexpоse dot uk. At any rate, Ukraine has no need for such facilities.

The big question is what kind of government we will have. The answer is, whatever kind Russia wants [...]