Not surprising news, though, invalid if Vlad goes nuclear. Near mid-day Saturday here in California’s Central Valley and the war in Ukraine continues to meltdown the news cycle.

In this case, preparations for handling an incompetently handled invasion:

New: U.S. and allies quietly prepare for a Ukrainian government-in-exile and a long insurgency. https://t.co/6ADbMjyxTJ W/ @michaelbirnbaum @John_Hudson @DanLamothe @loydstern @nakashimae and @PaulSonne

— Shane Harris (@shaneharris) March 5, 2022

Despite the resistance of the Ukrainian military against the Russkie horde, in time (we’re only 10 days into the event) Putin’s boys will beat the Ukrainians from the cities and out into the countryside, where a much dreaded (by invaders) war of insurgency will take place, slowly crippling the already shit-bad Rusian army.
Details/background via The Washington Post this afternoon:

The ways that Western countries would support a Ukrainian resistance are beginning to take shape. Officials have been reluctant to discuss detailed plans, since they’re premised on a Russian military victory that, however likely, hasn’t happened yet.
But as a first step, Ukraine’s allies are planning for how to help establish and support a government-in-exile, which could direct guerrilla operations against Russian occupiers, according to several U.S. and European officials.

The weapons the United States have provided to Ukraine’s military, and that continue to flow into the country, would be crucial to the success of an insurgent movement, officials said.
The Biden administration has asked Congress, infused with a rare bipartisan spirit in defense of Ukraine, to take up a $10 billion humanitarian aid and military package that includes funding to replenish the stocks of weapons that have already been sent.
…
The possible Russian takeover of Kyiv has prompted a flurry of planning at the State Department, Pentagon and other U.S. agencies in the event that the Zelensky government has to flee the capital or the country itself.

“We’re doing contingency planning now for every possibility,” including a scenario in which Zelensky establishes a government-in-exile in Poland, said a U.S. administration official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive security matter.

Zelensky, who has called himself Russia’s “target No. 1,” remains in Kyiv and has assured his citizens he’s not leaving. He has had discussions with U.S. officials about whether he should move west to a safer position in the city of Lviv, closer to the Polish border.
Zelensky’s security detail has plans ready to swiftly relocate him and members of his cabinet, a senior Ukrainian official said. “So far, he has refused to go.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, declined to describe any contingency plans Ukraine was making in the event that Russian forces capture the capital.
“One can only say that Ukraine is preparing for the defense of Kyiv as purposefully as Russia is preparing for its attack on Kyiv,” Podolyak said.
“This war has become a people’s war for Ukrainians,” he continued.
“We must win the war. There are no other options.”

Apparently, Putin figured wrong, and unless he can stop this shit before it’s too late, will have an open, cancerous sore to patch for a long time:

“This is a country of 40 million [people],” the diplomat said.
The Kremlin “can try to have a strategy. But I think in our strategic calculations we are always forgetting one small obstacle, and that’s the will of the people. Putin has forgotten how to be elected in a democratic way.”

NATO leaders also say that even if Russia captures Kyiv, that would not end the resistance, nor the existence of the Ukrainian state.

“Russians cannot occupy all the country and subdue it,” said Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks, whose country maintained a diplomatic service in exile for 51 years after it was occupied in 1940 by the Soviet Union.
Washington never recognized the annexation of the three Baltic states.

“There will be a partisan war, there will be resistance. So even if Kyiv falls that does not mean the end of the war,” Pabriks said.

And from all indications on social media, Putin and his army will never have peace while in Ukraine.
This kind of shit will continue:

This is reportedly in Melitopol. Russian forces continue to face resistance in cities they’ve occupied. https://t.co/qaepsyV3jH pic.twitter.com/3xNF8nnENo

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) March 5, 2022

On those walls in Ukrainian tenement halls:

Once again, here we are…

(Illustration out front: ‘Art Critic’ by Norman Rockwell, found here)