Caught the special session of the UN Security Council on CSPAN late last night, as the Ukrainian ambassador addressed the members.
Current president of the UN Security council is: Russian. (He didn't say much, mostly called on the various other speakers).
The Albanian ambassador roundly condemned the attack on Ukraine, which I am sure will upset Vlad to no end. Likewise with the Irish one.
French ambassador (I missed the German one, tuned in after it had started) issued a strongly worded condemnation.
Ukrainian ambassador told the Security Council president (the Russian guy) that he ought to vacate his seat, since his country had started a war.
This all about an hour after Putin announced the beginning of the "special military operation" (which is a curious thing to call an invasion).
Switched over to a few other channels and saw reports of air assault/paratroops coming into Kiev airport (or the one closest to it) and various reports of.
Guessing that tactical surprise was achieved, or the air defense grid had been previously disabled before that move was made.
Cyber attacks and efforts to disable Ukranian command and control were also reported, unsure of how good the info was.
Went to bed wondering what I'd see in the morning: it would appear that Ukranian command and control has been badly compromised at this point.
How depressing. A number of commenters (wife was still watching when I went to bed, she's not working today) described this as a blitzkrieg, and I think that's an apt description.
The move on Odessa isn't a surprise, but how well is it being resisted?
Perhaps todays new will tell.
The UN has a lot of good features, but as a collective security organization it's been shown to be mostly ineffective (starting with the break up of Yugoslavia, early 90's) but other examples abound. You could see the frustration on the Ukranian ambassadors face as he was speaking. We have a number of friends who worked in Ukraine back in the 90's and married local gals; they now live here.
They've got to be worried sick about their families back home.
For Nut Loose:
I take it he is after the airfields as he will need facilities for his helicopters, fuel supplies etc.
Do we not have the facilities to use cyber attacks back at them. After all by taking down some of Ukraines sites they will having be effects on the west.
My guess is that he's gonna use the airfields to flow in more forces to key cities. They needed to grab those air heads to get control of the cities, and if they've got air superiority it will be tough to stop that flow.
(The reports last night were of special ops folks running around Kiev targeting various Ukraine leadership but I am uncertain of how good that info is)