Arguably - people in the breakaway republics are doing much better. Crimea is no longer starved for water as they have access to Crimean Fresh Water canal that was dammed by Ukranians for 8 years. Donetsk is no longer shelled, as Russia pushed further through Artemovsk and towards Dnepropetrovsk. Ukranians that stayed or chose to seek refuge in Russia are not at threat of being forcefully mobilized and have generous resettlement allowances. Mariupol is getting rebuilt.

I had a lunch this week with a Crimean Tatar guy who’s parents are still in Crimea, he says they are doing well, but he cannot visit them because he cannot get rid of Ukranian nationality during the war.

This post was edited by Malopox on Nov 22 2024 12:37pm

Look, propaganda bs aside my wife is from Makiivka. Her family(my in laws) live there. Her nephews 4 & 8 are missing from there.

I’m sorry to hear that. Please forgive me for asking this- but what do your inlaws think happened to them?

I’ve seen that a lot of kids were transferred out of the active warzone which was controversial as Ukranian side says they were kidnapped, while Russian side says they removed kids from danger. I know a few Russians that adopted orphans from Donbass and these orphanage seem to be quite happy with their adoptive families of my friends.

I’m going to have a coffee in a few weeks with an Ukranian girl from Berdyansk with whom I studied decades ago. I understand her folks stayed behind, while she’s living in Europe. There wasn’t much devastation or carnage in Berdyansk as it was taken relatively swiftly and had no army stationed there. I’m trying my best to listen to folks in my life with relatives in Ukraine to hopefully pierce propaganda veil and find out how little people are perceiving things. When the war started we hired a girl from Mariupol as a nanny. Her folks managed to move out to Kiev and she chose to return back to Kiev in early 2023 or so. We learned a lot from her.

This post was edited by Malopox on Nov 22 2024 12:51pm

They don’t know. We can’t speculate currently. It may simply be the hussle and bussle of the start of things they got lost or could be kidnapped by civilian pervs OR by either side. They don’t have a single clue other than her sister was killed and raped and the boys are missing. It could be hundreds of possibilities but it’s all speculation currently. When it started crowds of people freaked out and some kids simply got lost.

info@novoeizdanie.com

They help finding MIA usually, but worth a try. In your case I'd be looking for the nephews specifically, there are non-zero chances that they are still alive and just lost the contacts their mother had.

That's a bit problematic. As shown with that ballistic missile, Putin/Russia could have leveled Ukraine American style long ago if they wanted to. Western Ukraine backed by US and allies don't want to let go of the eastern part mainly populated by Russians at all. He can't go killing civilians indiscriminately, There will be a time after the war and whatever remains will be Russia's neighbor (not a freaking Iraq or Afghanistan where everything was destroyed then pulled out back to the safe USA oversees). Russia allows those strikes for the aim to conquer eastern Ukraine without too much bloodshed. That's is seen as a weakness by the Anglo-Saxons (US + Brits), the strikes with storm shadow into the Russian soil where to provoke a full scale war, so Trump would inherit a disaster from democrats. Ukrainians are regarded as cannon fodder.
I'd say no area where active shelling or attacks are possible is safe for now. Ukrainians are known to indiscriminately shell eastern parts with no regards to collateral damage. A good colleague of mine from Ukraine (a 38y woman) who also invited her mom and sister to Germany in order to escape the war tells the same. They'd rather return when it's officially over.

This post was edited by babun1024 on Nov 22 2024 08:18pm

It won’t ever be the same. We are trying to get what’s left of my wife’s family to the US. Her home city was one of the first involved since it’s in Donetsk Oblast. It’s a nightmare over there.

Fun to observe how narratives change. It turns out that instead of falling apart, Russia is actually much stronger than it was in Feb 2022, which - as the new narrative claims - is the reason to militarise Europe even more.

These are the same very people who manufactured this Frankenstein with their own hands by endlessly empowering Putin with their xenophobia and essentialist BS which undermined the West in the eyes of Russians. They also coerced Ukraine into losing its chance in Istanbul or as part of the Minsk process.

Their strategy works the same way as a financial pyramid - all you need is to keep pumping up fear and escalation, create mass psychosis. And the pyramid is indeed financial - it’s all about the personal gain for these unscrupulous deathdealers.

This post was edited by Malopox on Nov 24 2024 03:41am

I've just read about the nephews. Sad state of affairs for regular Ukrainian citizens. Gl and I hope the war is going to find its end soon enough. I've never been for this war or the slogan " fight Russia until the last Ukrainian".

Well the west is a huge part of the problem. This repeated tit for tat stuff is prolonging the issue. The way I see it NATO had two choices:

1. Put boots on the ground from day 1. To prevent the massive amounts of casualties we have now. It would destroy ties with Russia but save lives. Russia is not currently ready to take on NATO as long as the US is a member. Not even with Iran, NK and Chinese help.

2. Stay out of it militarily and supplies wise and try to help Russia and Ukraine find some common ground to an agreement. I truly believe Russia would hand back all land AND Crimea if they had some promising assurances. Putin doesn’t need more mouths to feed he alread has a ton of charity states.