Today's News: War in Ukraine

78 years of peace in Europe was ended today by Russia and Belarus attacking the Ukraine.

#Ukraine is attacked from the north, east, south, air, and ground. This is an all-out war, with Kyiv now under threat by Russian tanks moving in from Belarus. There are reports of amphibious landings in Mariupol and Odesa. pic.twitter.com/G19PsvIvPi

— Mattia Nelles (@mattia_n) February 24, 2022

Map of Russian missile strikes against Ukrainian targets. All military airports are apparently destroyed pic.twitter.com/Q0wY7diVst

— Dmitri Alperovitch (@DAlperovitch) February 24, 2022

Its worth noting that Ukraine and Belarus are both huge countries.

Real-size profiles of #Belarus and #Ukraine projected on the map of Western Europe. This is a potential scale of conflict-affected areas should #Russia expand its aggression against Ukraine (and involve Belarus into the war). pic.twitter.com/3Nl7jbUu7m

— SERGE KHARYTONAU ❌❌ (@kharytonau) January 31, 2022

Someone said it would take 50 divisions to invade a country the size of Ukraine, and Putin only has 15.

So Russia won't be pulling a blizkreig invasion over the whole country, probably more like pummelling airports and ports and infrastructure, and hoping Ukraine will just collapse militarily and economically, and sue for peace, letting the Russians march in without opposition, ending up with half the country occupied by Russia and the other half another version of Vichy France. 

Its difficult to see now what the rest of the world will do to stop this, and whether Europe and the world can get pulled into fighting too:

Eastern European members of NATO are invoking Article 4, which means urgent consultations on military plans for the alliance.

— Paul Sonne (@PaulSonne) February 24, 2022

In America, the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for how they are following Trump's lead and supporting Putin, and many are calling them out:

The corruption of the American right should have been clear with its tolerance of an attempted coup at home. Now our supposed leader flatters a foreign aggressor as he starts an unprovoked and calamitous war. Shame on every Republican who continues to honor or excuse Trump.

— Gregg Nunziata (@greggnunziata) February 24, 2022

In Canada, considering all the pro-Putin Fox News blathering going on, I have been wondering which way our own CPC would go with this - particularly given how steadfast Trudeau has been in supporting Ukraine and how the CPC is always knee-jerk negative to everything Trudeau does. 

But tonight our old frenemy Harper issued a statement that was, I think, a clear message to the CPC to stop with the politics and get with the program:

No further compromises, no resets, no diplomatic niceties, says former Canadian Prime minister Stephen Harper, likening Putin to Hitler in 1938. Bullies must be dealt with by force. https://t.co/5e893W9LZ1

— Allan Woods (@WoodsAllan) February 24, 2022

And finally -- Trump is just such a clueless twit:

Trump thought US troops were fighting Russians in Ukraine. Try to wrap your mind around that for a second. https://t.co/OXg6qZ1yeJ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 24, 2022

One thing we can count on is that Putin will put everything he can into turning the House and the Senate in 2022, and re-electing Trump to the presidency in 2024. 

It was a dreadful night to search for anything amusing to finish off this post, but this provoked a rueful chuckle:

Really impressed with everyone who got an emergency PhD in epidemiology in 2020 and who now has somehow earned a master’s in Russian Studies

— Olga Khazan (@olgakhazan) February 22, 2022