Just a brief house keeping note at top. If I keep doing these updates, I’m going to title them War for Ukraine from here on out with the update # after the colon. I am not going to retitle the first one I did two nights ago.
About an hour ago Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, warned that Russian forces are closing on the city:
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has warned Russian troops are “very close to the capital” and predicted “a difficult night” for the city.
“The situation now is threatening for Kyiv, no exaggeration,” he said on his Telegram channel. “The night and the morning will be difficult.”— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) February 25, 2022
? Air raid warning in Kyiv. And missiles being fired on the capital. I’ve counted three large strikes in past five minutes. Watching from my window and seeing the sky light up; roar of explosions reverberating across the city.
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 25, 2022
President Zelenskyy has both tweeted out video of him in Kyiv to knock back Russian disinformation that he’d abandoned the city and its defense and tweeted that he’d had a discussion with President Biden about next steps:
President, his Chief of Staff, the Prime Minister, head of the Servant of the People are all in Kyiv.
We will win! ?????? pic.twitter.com/1ae8hZnthC
— Oleksiy Sorokin (@mrsorokaa) February 25, 2022
Resupply of weaponry is continuing to flow into Ukraine:
⚡️BREAKING: Kyiv home guard, the 112th Territorial Defense Brigade, now operate British-provided NLAWs.
Welcome to hell, motherfuckers. pic.twitter.com/9OVuQhQkTC— Illia Ponomarenko (@IAPonomarenko) February 25, 2022
About four hours ago, AMB (ret) McFaul, tweeted that NATO has (finally!) activated the NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VHRJTF)
Hearing now that NATO's Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) has been activated. Excellent news.
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) February 25, 2022
The NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force is:
The NATO Response Force (NRF) is a highly ready and technologically advanced multinational force made up of land, air, maritime and Special Operations Forces (SOF) components that the Alliance can deploy quickly, wherever needed. In addition to its operational role, the NRF can be used for greater cooperation in education and training, increased exercises, support for disaster relief and better use of technology.
A powerful package
NATO Allies decided at the 2014 Wales Summit to enhance the NRF by creating a “spearhead force” within it, known as the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force or VJTF. This enhanced NRF is one of the measures of the Readiness Action Plan (RAP) agreed by Allies to respond to the changes in the security environment.
The enhanced NATO Response Force includes:
- a command and control element: Operational command of the NRF alternates between Allied Joint Force Commands in Brunssum and Naples;
- the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF): This NRF element – about 20,000 strong – includes a multinational land brigade of around 5,000 troops and air, maritime and SOF components. Leading elements are ready to move within two to three days. Allies assume the lead role for the VJTF on a rotational basis;
Rather than just give a run down of events, I wanted to provide a bit of analysis now that Ukraine has withstood the first two days of the invasion. That’ll be after the jump.