The Questions You Asked Through Our Google Form
You can ask more at the link at bottom of this article.
If I donate now will it go to support those in need of power and heat?
Yes absolutely – in fact we have been running a winter appeal that you could donate to. So far we have raised $2170 and we have transferred $2400 specifically for fuel for generators, power packs and warm clothes without waiting for the appeal to finish. We sent it to three different on-the-ground groups (in Korosten, Kharkiv region, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih & Kherson region ) that I personally saw distributing to very needy people. Here is the link to our winter appeal. Winter Emergency Appeal – OPT Thankyou!
Could you please recommend websites, digital radio stations, podcasts, or other digital sources for reliable daily news updates from Ukraine?
I’m usually careful with recommendations like this because I believe that everyone has some kind of bias – it’s human nature. And also, situations can change very quickly. As an example one time I recommended New York Times and then found they published a lot of articles that were full of Russian propaganda but then they have been lately publishing some good stuff again -so it’s up and down. So I encourage people to look at a range of sources and apply critical thinking to what they read. However so far some of the ones I have found pretty good are The Kyiv Independent, Youtube blogs by Jake Broe, Denys Davydov – YouTube, and Caolon Robertson. Ground News is a great app/site that curates news from all over the world on different topics you can search for and indicates the percentage by which it is left/right or centre biased so you can make up your own mind. Roman Sheretma and Garry Kasparov and Ilya Pomorenko are some good ones to follow on social media for commentary. Others recommended by @JulianKnysh: KyivPost, Ukrainiska Pravda, Ukraine The Latest – podcast / YouTube
Ukraine's leadership is in a difficult position; they have to show gratitude for the help they HAVE received from the West, but at the same time they must often have to bite their tongue in frustration at the slowness with which the help has come, too little, too late. Even ignoring the dreadful stuff the American administration has been involved in of late. My question is, everyday Ukrainians must also have this mix of gratitude and, yes, anger... did anyone in Ukraine make comments to you relevant to that confict, which you can share? I ask because I can sort of identify with those conflicting emotions on Ukraine's behalf.
And yes, I can relate to those frustrations too. What I did find is that those of us outside of Ukraine (including the Ukrainian diaspora) are far more vocal about these frustrations than those inside Ukraine. I found that very few Ukrainians would talk with us about politics, what the world is not doing enough of etc.. I don’t know the exact answer, but my observations lead me to believe it is for a combination of the following reasons:
- The Ukrainians I mix with are all involved in some kind of selfless service in difficult times and cannot afford the time or mental power to think about frustrating things they can’t change.
- There is an incredible amount of stoicism – no one really complains even though I think they have a lot to be very angry about…
- I think it is also a part of their culture to be polite and be thankful – everyone just kept thanking us but I feel like our countries have not done anywhere near enough and we are the ones who should be saying thankyou.
- For many it is a mental health survival strategy. Quite simply – for many Ukrainians – if they gave any time to thinking about the ups and downs of the way the world does or doesn’t support them they would go insane. They just ‘get on with the job.’
- In a similar vein I think Ukrainians have enough experience of being let down by partners, they fully know the untrustworthiness of Russia and it’s true intentions – to really not trust anything but themselves and their determination to fight on to remain free. So, everything else is just background noise.
So, until I thought all that through – I guess it initially surprised me how many Ukrainians I mixed with really didn’t seem to even pay attention to all the world negotiations and politics.
What’s something you saw or experienced that you were not expecting by people in Ukraine?
That’s hard to say as given my background and the way my grandfather spoke about Ukraine, I had high expectations. But I think Ukrainians exceeded all my expectations in their courage, resilience, kindness, generosity and ingenuity. I didn’t really expect to find that so many Ukrainians would ignore air raid alerts and not want to even know if there was a missile coming or similar. But after being there longer this last time I started to understand – and they explained to me – that it is a case of surviving mentally. One can only be on high alert or think about the fact that a neighbour is deliberately sending lethal bombs to rain down on where you and your children live, for so long, without losing your mind.
The current consensus among Western commentators sympathetic to Ukraine is that the 'best case' is a ceasefire that freezes the front line, with security guarantees, hoping to get occupied territories back in future. That frustrates me, because if only Uk got a little more help and the pressure kept on Russia, there is a good chance over the long run that Russia's economy and thus its war effort, will collapse. But I don't have to suffer the daily trauma. I know that Ukrainians don't want to surrender any more territory, but do any of them you met share my feeling that it's not time to freeze anything, so long as the US doesn't stop all support and/or lift sanctions on Russia.
As you say – we cannot imagine the daily trauma – the huge loss of life – the destroyed homes and towns. I can’t claim to speak for all Ukrainians and I am sure there is a variety of views as there would be in any society But I don’t think there are many, if any, Ukrainians who actually believe that ‘giving’ anything to Putin will stop any of that – in fact it will likely make it worse. I have not met one Ukrainian in Ukraine who wants to freeze or give up on anything. On the contrary these are some of the comments I have personally heard:
- We cannot give up, Russia will turn us into one giant concentration camp.
- We have seen what Russia does to our people in occupied territory – giving up anything is not an option.
- Even if they take our weapons we will keep fighting with our hands and shovels.
- We will fight until the last one of us – we have to, so that our children will not be slaves.
The other thing to remember is that what you mention is not an option. Putin has made clear that his non-negotiable is the whole of Donbas territory. He has never agreed to just freezing frontlines and explicitly stated he wouldn’t. And what some don’t realise is Donbas is where Ukraine’s strongest defence lines are – so if this is given to Putin ( who couldn’t take it after 4 years of fighting) – it is basically handing him the keys to the gates to the rest of Ukraine and then Europe.
As for security guarantees- Ukraine has lost count of the number of broken promises, particularly the biggest one – the Budapest Memorandum – which if it had been honoured would have meant there would have been no war. So, they have no reason to trust the vague allusions to ‘security guarantees’ being thrown around now.
You are right – it is frustrating- because if USA and Europe had gone all in to supplying the help needed, applying all the possible sanctions, seizing tankers full of sanctioned Russian oil, then this would very likely already be over. There will be books and movies about these failures.
Ukraine is the only one paying the ultimate price for standing up to this evil… That’s why we choose to stand with them in the small ways we can.
Please stand with them…. HERE 💛🩵
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