1. The armed forces of both Donetsk and Lugansk republics continue push towards their administrative borders. Many Ukrainian units continue to surrender and are being filtered to the rear.
2. Russian forces continue to swing around Sumy and Kharkov in the north, sealing off those cities and driving south to cut off Ukrainian forces in Donetsk and Lugansk, preventing them from retreating towards Kiev.
3. Russian forces continue to drive towards Kiev from the north, south and a force is swinging around the west of the city to cut off any retreat of forces towards Lviv.
4. Russian airborne forces holding the Gostomel airport fought off persistent attacks by Ukrainian forces. A Russian armored column outside Gostomel was able to provide artillery supprt to the hard pressed paratroopers. Russian Aerospace forces carried our sorties against attacking Ukrainian forces.
5. Within Kiev, weapons were distributed to civilians in anticipation of an assault by Russian forces. This however only added to the sense of chaos and panic, as armed gangs subsequently rampaged around the city, and looting shops. Government warnings of Russian sabotage groups operating within Kiev led to firefights between rival groups.
6. At this point, Russian forces have not completely sealed off Kiev, with escape routes still open to the west and south, but fleeing Ukrainian politicians and oligarchs will need to avoid capture by advancing Russian units.
7. The Ukrainian regime has called intact units to retire on Kiev and prepare for street by street fighting. To this end, Ukrainian anti-aircraft, artillery and missile units are setting themselves up within the grounds of schools, apartment buildings and hospitals, in order to protect these units from Russian air and missile strikes. This was a strategy used by the forces assaulting the Donbas for the last eight years and by al-Quada and ISIS in Syria. I wonder who trained them in this strategy? Russian forces have issued warnings to Ukrainian civilians to evacute their homes and apartments if they are being used by Ukrainian forces.
8. The Russians will not rush into Kiev and create a bloodbath but will besiege the units trapped in the city and negotiate for their surrender, unit by unit, group by group. Few Ukrainian soldiers want to die on behalf of the crooks in Kiev. There are rumors that Zelensky has fled to Lviv and his claimed visits to the frontline were fake. That wouldn't be a surprise.
9. The Chechen units seen on Day One are being deployed against Mariupol, which is a stronghold of the Nazi Azov battalion. Fearsome fighting is expected as Azov units are unlikely to surrender.
10. In terms of sanctions, Britain has denied the Russian carrier Aeroflot the British airspace. Russia responded by denying British Airlines overflight rights for Russian territory, which will have a significant impact on BA, which will have to fly longer, more expensive flight-paths. Another example of western sanctions boomeranging back on themselves.
11. The US has sanctioned the sale of aerospace products to Russia, but exempted themselves to allow the purchase of Russian rocket engines, on which they depend for the NASA space program. Not to worry, Russia will shortly counter-sanction and the US exemption on itself will become as meaningless as all their other policies.
Day Four Update: https://stolzuntermenschen.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-ukrainian-operation-day-four.html
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