Reality strikes back! The real Ukraine invasion came a week later

As most will no doubt be aware by now, Russia launched a "specialy military operation" in Ukraine on the 23rd of February. Most of us would call it simply an invasion. This came a week after the official invasion date pronounced by the U.S., which was supposed to be the 16th of February.

I must admit that I thought the news of the invasion was a hoax. I am not, however, completely willing to abandon that idea. 

Russia has large military drills on its Western flank every year, almost always in conjunction with Belarus. Every time they have had those drills over the past few years the West has warned of an invasion but nothing has come of it. Of course, it could be that they had been plotting an invasion all this time, and I cannot rule that out. 

However, when I look at how the U.S. officials were behaving before this happened, it's difficult to conclude that even they saw talk of a Russian invasion as anything else than a way for Biden to play tough on Russia for an invasion which they were convinced would never come. If you had wanted Russia to invade Ukraine, you would have done exactly everything that the Biden administration and NATO did prior to the 23rd of February. 

Russia had very clear lines and since I have been following the Ukraine situation for a long time, I think I can pretty much narrow it down to these two:

• Ukraine must not be a member of NATO or host NATO weapons systems.
• Ukraine must not attempt to take the Donbass by force.

What is certain is that the fantasy of the West, of their non-existent-in-practice values, has met the reality of Russian weapons and been found to be nothing but a castle built on sand - or perhaps that should read quick sand.