Well, as usual, Hi there I guess!

We are all adjusting to real, new reality.

Russian soldiers armed to the teeth are fighting and conducting aggressive maneuvers at the borders of western Europe.

I say this living in Iceland. I can only begin to imagine the atmosphere of build-up faced by Polish people as well as the Balkans.
Build up to something they know all too well, or at least have heard about since youth.

The balance of power in the world is delicate, however rigidly maintained by those who have some.
(*power" that is). One gains a little this year & decade and so it goes on and we regular people don't feel their struggles too much in our everyday lives.
However once in a while, someone misreads the situation and or gets too aggressive. Usually, that "player" then tends to get isolated on the world stage before inevitably wars break out

In the scenario unfolding before our very eyes a brilliant leader and strategist who has had much more than a decade to carve one of the world's historic imperial superpowers to his own fantasy image, and boy are his fantasies different than most of ours!

Vladimir Putin grew up training martial arts and is educated by the infamous KGB where he worked for the Soviet agency during the cold war.
This guy sees the world as "Red VS Blue", USA VS Soviet Russia, and its allies in the Warsaw Alliance.

In his eyes, everything can be linked somehow to the geopolitical power struggle that emerged from the struggle for influence in the world between the two superpowers in the wake of the second world war.

In the Russian leader's eyes, the war is always ongoing, just at different temperatures. And believe me, this has been building up, and A LOT has happened since Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014.

Since the start of the full-scale attack on Ukraine, Russian troops have fired 328 Iskander and Caliber surface-to-surface and tactical missiles. And I see no need to doubt these numbers, and to be sure we are talking Missile here, no "bombs", these are expensive motherfu~~rs sent to Ukraine to do some real damage! (Source on missile numbers EMPR)

And these are "the beginning stages", even if its pretty clear the war is not going according to plans, the Russians are no strangers to urban warfare historically, as well as most recently in Aleppo during the brutal Syrian Civil war.

As well as having brought in death squads from Chechnya as well as from his Syrian allies, that is, Muslim fighters with no "Slav" relationship with the civilians they are entrusted to slaughter.

Yes, let that shit sink in for a moment, Chechen and Syrian death squads! Fu, why? Because he is Fcking serious about this sh**t.

He hasn't used these, the bulk of the Russian invasion army are "regulars", teens and working-class rural boys, 17-20 ish years old, with little training nor discipline. Some or most didn't even know they were heading for war.

which sounds crazy but you have to remember the Russian tradition for secrecy and meth dealer´s level of paranoia in the elite and ruling circles within the Kremlin.

If faced with continuing stiff resistance by the Ukrainian military and civilian population Vladimir Putin has at his disposal an assortment of weaponry to further inflict pain and suffering while escalating the war efforts which so far seem to be "concentrated".

For the moment though it seems the brutal war might even be turning decisively, but one hour ago Ukrainian army reported on social media that parts of the Russian forces are no longer capable of conducting offensive operations and are being pushed back in disarray.

Their morale is high and they are willing to stand their ground here and now in the face of this rise of Russian imperialism, as can be seen on their Twitter account where soldiers are seen singing, a Russian tank is blown up, and much more. For those interested in the Ukrainian military´s side of the story minute by minute I recommend you check it out!

The Ukrainians have also taken up unconventional methods as seen in this youtube video to disorganize their opponents, by changing street signs for example.

I´d like to finish this post with this amazing and cool Hive logo in the Ukrainian national flag colors with a closed fist representing and to demonstrate support for the Ukrainians fighting for their lives and freedoms. It was ofcourse made by the talented and ever beautiful @amanda.yrr . As per my request of course!

I´ve gone on a word binge, so the cliff notes are these!

• Russians lack in logistics at the moment as their army wasn't war prepared, they have failed to attain all of their objectives and have made but small insignificant territorial gains. At HIGH costs to manpower and world image.

• The Ukrainian military is holding the invading force at bay at almost all key locations, Kyiv has thwarted some forward-moving Russian troops, kharkiv is standing strong, so are Odessa and Marioupoul.

• The Ukrainian civilians are determined to stand their ground, fighting alongside the military still in high morale as the war rages on into its 15th day.

• Russia still has tons of ways to break this stalemate, carpet bombings, tactical nuclear weapons as well as their air force and not to mention their elite special forces along with the also formerly mentioned foreign death squads.

• The West and NATO seem castrated but some Europeans, like the Germans who recently announced their "re-armament".

I guess that's a "something" to come out of all of this. I mean it´s been way too long since the Germans really militarized and started "doing things".

Well thats all on politics and world news from me....

I decided on using the opportunity to introduce my new banner, "Ramblings of a mad man" drawn by my beautiful and talented fiance @amanda.yrr

I felt it "apropriate"!

I hope you are all safe and sound with your families preparing for a nice weekend! I hope and pray to the gods that the situation somehow de-escalates, but with Putin at the helm and the Ukrainians determined to fight to the death we can only expect... Bloodbath.

My next post will be a Splinterlands one I hope!

Let's POWER THIS ONE UP 100%

Eythorphoto!