Reportedly a missile attack on Vasilkov military airfield, south-west of #Kyiv. Large fire burning can be seen in Kyiv.pic.twitter.com/fMcJ3odMJY

— marqs (@MarQs__) February 26, 2022

Updates on the Ukrainian war from Tweets and postings on line:

I can't see this de-escalate.. this will turn in WW3 really soon, unfortunately.

The EU will close its airspace for Russian airlines

pulsing glow in the distance from Kiev

Big boom and now pulsing glow over SW kyiv pic.twitter.com/JwpSVXhExR

— Alexander Marquardt (@MarquardtA) February 26, 2022

The financial director for Gazprom, the largest publicly-listed natural gas company in the world and the largest company in Russia by revenue, has been found dead by suicide in St. Petersburg

How do y'all see this playing out? I'll take a stab at it:

1) NATO partners remove Russia from SWIFT
2) Russia shuts off oil and gas to Europe
3) Europe goes into meltdown. Mad dash for oil and gas from Middle East.

4) Russia and Iran close the Straits of Hormuz, blocking any shipments. China may participate as they were part of this same exercise over a month ago.
5) Lights go out in the US.
6) China takes Taiwan.
7) Germany and France apologize profusely to Russia and beg for leniency.
8) Global chaos ensues over massive hyperinflation and lack of food.

Explosion in Kiev on Friday

#BreakingNews:-Loud explosions heard now in #Kiev #Kyiv

#Russia #Ukraine https://t.co/bSSyBa0zmx>— 日本のニュース (@JAPANSNEWS) February 26, 2022

The Russian Federation closed its airspace to Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Estonia. This was reported in the Federal Air Transport Agency.

BREAKING: European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, UK, Canada, U.S. announce they will disconnect certain Russian banks from SWIFT and will take restrictive measures to prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves to undermine sanctions

Ukrainians waiting for a train https://imgur.com/DkVAc7W

The Western political class had demonized Putin and Russia for over 20 years now. It began when Bush unilaterally withdrew from the ABM Treaty (the cornerstone of the Cold War detente) in 2000-2001, at which time Putin warned that the withdrawal and the "missile defense shield" in Poland and Romania would put Russia and the West on course to confrontation. The 2014 Maidan finally convinced Russia that confrontation was inevitable. Putin has been planning his response for 8 years and I don't think the West has a clue how far Russia is prepared to go ensure their security. The only thing that can stop a nuclear confrontation at this point is the removal of the Western Deep State that created this crisis in the first place. But the West is living under 24/7 brainwashing and our electoral process was compromised beyond all recognition in 2020, so I don't have much hope for a happy ending to this story.