Reacting to the attack on Ukraine (updated)

Putin has now launched a full-on attack against Ukraine, including cross-border shelling, missile attacks on cities all over the country, an amphibious landing near Odesa, and apparently armored vehicles crossing the border.  At least several dozen Ukrainian civilians and military personnel have been killed.  Ukraine claims to have shot down several Russian warplanes; Russia denies this.  The mood in Ukraine appears to be defiant.  Here's an overview of the situation at the moment; here's a Ukrainian news site which carries frequent updates in English.

As for Western reactions to the attack, I'm seeing essentially nothing except economic sanctions, which should certainly be imposed but which have about as much chance of stopping this aggression as wishing upon a star does, and forceful rhetoric from politicians, which has absolutely zero chance of doing anything whatsoever.  The two economic steps generally said to be most impactful are stopping the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which Germany has already done, and cutting Russia off from the SWIFT international payments system, which the US is already backing down on doing.

The only response likely to be truly effective is sending the Ukrainians as many weapons as we can (sending any Western troops to fight in Ukraine is, rightly, off the table).  UK prime minister Boris Johnson announced an increase in military aid to Ukraine just before the actual attack began, and Mitch McConnell called for more military aid two days ago.  I haven't seen any official announcements on the subject since the start of the attack, but it's only been a few hours at this point.

We need to face reality, however much it may distress some people.  The only measures that will actually help in this situation are those which maximize the killing of Russian soldiers.  Putin is not going to back down and pull his troops out because a bunch of banks get their assets frozen.  The only thing that will get the Russians out of Ukraine is what got the Soviets out of Afghanistan and the Americans out of Vietnam -- unacceptable casualties with no hope of the situation improving over time.  And yes, as in Afghanistan and Vietnam, this is likely to involve a long conflict, perhaps more a guerilla resistance to occupation than conventional warfare.  In this connection, the Ukrainian government recently took steps to loosen the country's strict gun-control laws and make it easier for civilians to obtain firearms.  It remains to be seen whether there is still time for large numbers of Ukrainians to arm themselves in preparation for guerilla warfare.  The West must prepare to provide help to resistance fighters, possibly for years, as we did with the resistance in countries under Nazi occupation during World War II.

For make no mistake -- if Putin conquers Ukraine and gets away with it, with no penalty except a bunch of economic sanctions, that's going to look pretty good to him, and he'll feel emboldened to commit further aggression in the future.  This reckless and delusional man has made the stakes clear.  Now the Ukrainians, with our aid, must force him to face reality.

Updates:  Numerous brief videos here of scenes from the war.

The Russian stock market has crashed.

Detailed hour-by-hour live updates here.  It appears that the Ukrainian military is fighting back fiercely.