According to reports from Russia’s Interfax news agency, the Russian military has cut off Kyiv, the capitol of Ukraine, from the west.
“Currently, the main forces of the airborne troops have joined the units of the Russian landing at the Gostomel airfield, blocking the capital of Ukraine from the west, said the official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Igor Konashenkov,” Interfax reported.
The claimed blockade of Kyiv comes after Russian military forces secured the strategic area around the disabled Chernobyl nuclear facility and claimed to have taken control of the Gostomel airfield near Kyiv. According to Interfax, the Russian ministry of defense said that “more than 200 people from special units of Ukraine were killed” during fighting there.
In total, reports indicate that Russia’s initial efforts successfully destroyed most of Ukraine’s combat ability, eliminating the country’s capacity to respond in any significant way to the Russian invasion.
Almost certainly due to the collapse of Ukraine’s conventional armed forces, the government of Ukraine called on all able-bodied citizens to fight back against Russian forces, essentially demanding the beginning of a campaign of guerrilla warfare. On February 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted, “We will give weapons to anyone who wants to defend the country. Be ready to support Ukraine in the squares of our cities.”
Also on February 24, an increasingly desperate Zelensky decried the lack of military support from Western nations. Ukraine, he lamented, is “left alone in defense of our state.”
“Who is ready to fight with us?” He continued by asking. “Honestly — I do not see such.”
If Zelensky thought, as he seemed to, that any Western nation, including the United States, would have been either willing or able to fight on behalf of his nation, then he was played for the fool. There is no Western nation, including the United States, with conventional military capacity sufficient to thwart a Russian invasion of Ukraine. In fact, it is doubtful in the extreme that the western nations, even acting in sync, could slow down a Russian invasion of Europe in total. If Putin desired, he likely could dip his toes into the English Channel by Spring. Fortunately, it is difficult to imagine any incentive that this would offer the Russians. They have Europe by the throat already due to most European nations’ crazed energy policies. The status quo in Europe already strongly favors Russian hegemony.
Thus on his own, and losing badly, the increasingly desperate Ukrainian president reportedly indicated that he was ready to discuss Ukraine’s future neutrality. “We are not afraid to talk to Russia. We are not afraid to talk about security guarantees for our state. We are not afraid to talk about neutral status,” Zelensky said, according to reports.
A more official offer from Zelensky to negotiate was reported by Interfax on February 25.
“I want to address the President of the Russian Federation once again,” Zelensky said, according to the Interfax report. “Fighting is taking place throughout Ukraine. Let’s sit down at the negotiating table to stop the loss of life.”
Responding to this message, the Russians, according to Interfax, have signaled they are ready to talk.
“As you know, today President of Ukraine Zelensky announced his readiness to discuss the neutral status of Ukraine,” said Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, according to Interfax. He continued, “In this context, in response to Zelensky’s proposal, Vladimir Putin is ready to send a Russian delegation to Minsk at the level of representatives of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the presidential administration to negotiate with the Ukrainian delegation.”
