Monday morning, February 28, 2022: “We are all here!”
The first thing I do each morning is check the headlines for news on the war in Ukraine. I’m always very apprehensive. Is Kyiv still standing? Is President Zelensky still resisting? I can report that the answer to both questions is YES! In his morning video, President Zelensky admitted, “The night was hard.” But then he defiantly declared to the world, “We are all here!”
It is too early to declare Putin’s brazen attempt to conquer Ukraine a failure. The war is less than a week old. The Russian war machine still enjoys overwhelming superiority in air power and tanks. And yet, Putin’s blitzkrieg has run into unexpected roadblocks.
Putin believed the Ukrainian government was corrupt and unpopular. He was convinced the Ukrainian people would welcome the Russian forces as liberators. Wrong! Instead, his invasion has mobilized the Ukrainian people to stand with their besieged government. President Zelensky is now widely admired as a heroic leader who is successfully rallying his people to resist the hated invaders.
President Putin believed NATO was too divided and weak to offer more than token opposition. Wrong! Led by the United States, NATO is imposing crushing sanctions on the Russian economy. The United States, Germany, Turkey, and Belgium are now shipping advanced anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons to Ukraine.