As we noted four days ago, the period of maximum risk for an invasion of Ukraine began about three hours ago, when the Winter Olympics ended. If we get through the next week without columns of Russian troops and vehicles entering Ukraine, it probably won’t happen. I have no independent source of information, clearly those who have such data seem to believe Putin will invade.
British papers have photos of Russian military vehicles marked with a “Z” which are convoying toward the border. Several photos show the Z drawn inside a square box. What makes this symbology particularly interesting is that there is no letter “Z or z” in the Russian alphabet.
Marking all vehicles with a symbol reminds me of the “invasion stripes” the Allies painted on their aircraft prior to the D Day landings in Normandy. This post explains the D Day rationale - telling friend from foe. It makes even more sense in the modern context since the Ukraine military operates mostly Russian-made vehicles and weapons making it difficult to distinguish attacker from defender units while “on the fly” and splattered with mud.
