In the early hours of this morning, Nolan Peterson, a former USAF special ops pilot who has been reporting in Ukraine since 2014, put out a chilling Twitter thread describing the atmosphere in Kyiv. He could sense that sh*t was about to kick off…
Something bad is in the air tonight. We’re under a national emergency, airports are shutting down, military reserves have been called up. I lack the talent to express what it feels like to be in this European capital, home to millions…
— Nolan Peterson (@nolanwpeterson) February 24, 2022
and to feel a chill that has nothing to do with the cold as we brace for a distant madman’s wrath. It’s just unreal, and unbelievably tragic. I’m sitting here, waiting to hear the booms of the missiles and bombs.
— Nolan Peterson (@nolanwpeterson) February 24, 2022
I’m sitting here, waiting for the lights to go off and my links to the outside world to go dead. I’m sitting here, thinking about all my friends across this country, and on the front lines. I’m sitting here, wondering what a parent tells a child on a night like this.
— Nolan Peterson (@nolanwpeterson) February 24, 2022
I’m sitting here, wondering what our world is going to look like when the sun comes up a few hours from now. There’s been a lot of false alarms, and I hope, hope beyond hope, that tonight is one too…
— Nolan Peterson (@nolanwpeterson) February 24, 2022
and we wake up tomorrow and laugh off our unnecessary anxieties and go on living like any other day.
Until the sun goes down, and the unthinkable looms possible once again.
— Nolan Peterson (@nolanwpeterson) February 24, 2022
Intense stuff. This was followed by a press conference by Vladimir Putin in which he declared war and announced that Russia was ready for anything:
Putin: ‘We decided to launch a special military action’
— Dmitri Alperovitch (@DAlperovitch) February 24, 2022
Putin addressing Ukrainian armed forces – your ancestors fought the Nazis, don’t obey the orders of the Nazi Junta in Kyiv. Lay down your arms and go home
— Dmitri Alperovitch (@DAlperovitch) February 24, 2022
Putin speech is over. Chilling. War has begun
— Dmitri Alperovitch (@DAlperovitch) February 24, 2022
Moment later, Peterson confirmed the war had begun…
Explosions in Kyiv
— Nolan Peterson (@nolanwpeterson) February 24, 2022
Good God it’s actually happening
— Nolan Peterson (@nolanwpeterson) February 24, 2022
Explosions reported around Kyiv’s airport and heard in the city. It’s 05:30am here.
— Polina Ivanova (@polinaivanovva) February 24, 2022
Ukraine’s foreign minister right now: https://t.co/r4ZYKZDmd7
— Polina Ivanova (@polinaivanovva) February 24, 2022
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Wild stuff. At the moment no one is sure what this means for troops from other nations who have been deployed across Eastern Europe or how this will pan out for the rest of us around the world. Just unbelievable that we are set to experience a war of this magnitude in our lifetimes, not to mention immediately after (or during) a pandemic. For now I guess we can only hope that any civilians in harm’s way manage to keep themselves safe. It’s always the innocent folk on the ground who ultimately suffer the most.
Should be an interesting few weeks. Hopefully we’re not about to see the result of Putin’s 3,000-year-old Siberian warrior cloning experiment.
