Great Power contentions

[spmetla]

Russia Issues Ominous Warning to Finland, Sweden Should They Join NATO
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-thre...vasion-1682715

"Finland and Sweden should not base their security damaging the security of other countries," Zakharova said during the press conference.
"Clearly [the] accession of Finland and Sweden into NATO, which is first and foremost a military alliance, would have serious military-political repercussions that would demand a response from our country," she said.

This comes after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that the country was receiving support from both nations.

Not surprising but also exactly why this invasion is so self-defeating in that it is strengthening NATO and giving it purpose again while also demonstrating in the strongest possible way the importance of having allies if you dare to have an opinion that differs from your superpower neighbor.

Meanwhile in the Black Sea the potential for escalation despite Russian dominance of the sea is there in the strike on a Turkish owned ship, a Moldavian ship, and a Japanese ship too. This will give a lot of pressure on the Turks to consider closing the straits for more Russia ships into the Black Sea.

https://www.reuters.com/world/turkis...ty-2022-02-24/
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-...opean-26329832
https://splash247.com/two-more-ships...the-black-sea/

Apparently Russian armoured spearhead has reached periphery of Kiev from North and West linking with the Airborne at Hostomel airport. Some infiltrating Russian military units have already been detected and neutralized already inside the city, but i predict the Battle of Kiev is about to happen.

I've been watching that penetration too, given the tough resistance that the Ukrainians have put up elsewhere I expect this will be a hell of a hard slog for the Russians. Their sorta ownership of the air will make it hard for Ukraine to redeploy heavy units to contain this pocket but a mix of light and medium forces operating in the suburbs of a major city is difficult for any army to fight against.
I imagine though that supplies of ATGMs and Stingers are running low though their prevalence throughout the country as denied the Russians the ability to rely on low flying close support from gunships and CAS.

I hope that Taiwan takes note of the above and sees that they need high- and low-end capability to have an effect defense as Montmorency has advocated.