did not see it coming

… despite all predictions.

Our western leaders are rarely ever well pre­pared for hand­ling real crises as and when they happen. Imaginary crises of their own making* seem to suit them better. So also this time.
Thus, most of the initial crises-hand­ling has been left to people at ground levels this time around too, and so far all involved in saving lives and pro­per­ties seem to have done their very best.

Most noticeable for us on the outside of the conflict, is the strong and growing anger and resis­tance against Putin's invasion shown by the Ukrainean popu­la­tion. The will of a people to fight invaders with any means avail­able and then some, may be the hardest nut for Putin's military forces to crack – they may never succeed.

Tying up, bogging down and tiring out occupying forces, and never let the aggressor rest any­where, is some­thing we in Norway know well from our own history. I applaud the Ukrainean people's tenacity and fighting spirit, and only wish we could do more to sup­port them – both military and otherwise.

The ordinary civilians are the ones taking the highest risks and bur­den­ing the highest cost, as in all armed conflicts. They are the victims of all the atrocities that are and are not being reported. They are the ones being raped, murdered, starved, trapped and crushed under struc­tures, and driven from their homes.
The innocent children, the sick, the elderly, and all others who have done nothing to deserve the terror and killing. They are the ones losing their loved ones, and their own lives. No justification…

Ukraine is a sovereign state*, and should be left alone to run itself the way its own popu­la­tion choose. Attacking such a state by military force is plain wrong, regard­less of what any­one any­where – including Putin – may think or say about the matter.
There are other, and far less deadly, ways to deal with poli­ti­cal disa­gree­ments between nations.

always late…

May seem misplaced to mention in the midst of a war, but how it could come to such a sorry situa­tion can, as always, be traced back to failed/​collapsed leader­ships on all sides all over the world. The following expands on that very issue.

1:When somewhat sane people try to fore­see more or less insane people's future actions and inactions, they will always be too late and unfocused in their reac­tions to do much about it until they are left with few or no choices. History is full of examples.
While I would not give much for the amount of sanity one may have been able to observe in the leading circles in western socie­ties in later years – decades even, even they should have been able to observe and inter­pret the by now almost total lack of same in the midst of certain circles out­side theirs, and pre­pare accord­ingly. How wrong one can be…

2:As sanity and intel­li­gence do not have to come in balanced amounts in indi­vi­duals, one can have lots of one and none of the other, and vice versa and any­where in between. May make sorting out who to trust or not in which area and pro­fes­sion, slightly complicated.
As leaders avoid what seems com­pli­cated as much and as often as the next guy, taking the easy way out is more the norm than the excep­tion in poli­tics/​business. That such a prac­tice tends to back­fire more often than not, means leaders have to become experts at deflecting blame and off­loading the problems they cause onto others, in order to survive as indi­vi­duals in power. In times like this such self-pre­ser­va­tion policies lead nowhere.

Who that actually are in control of what, and of who, in world wide poli­tics, is always up to inter­pre­ta­tion. By not accepting that any of the official inter­pre­ta­tions we are being presented with is any­where near being the correct one, you will at least not have to be sorry that you believed in any of the official lies/​lines.

Beyond that, just remember that not a single one of the world's leaders in any field or state, have any god-given quali­fi­ca­tions for their posi­tions. They ride solely on their personal ambi­tions, arro­gance, and the loyalty, ambi­tions and quali­fi­ca­tions of their sup­port­ers, all of which can become pretty fragile and right out ugly if/​when situa­tions turn bad. Good leaders lead by example. Bad leaders lead by force and lies.

inserted observa­tions…

Late March 2022:
Millions have fled to neigh­bor­ing countries and further into Europe, and more millions are dis­placed inside Ukraine.*
Many are stay­ing, or return­ing across the borders, to fight back against the Russian invaders any­way they can – with and with­out arms.

We all know who has the most bombs and other des­truc­tive hard­ware. We also see the damage the Russian armed forces have inflic­ted on small and large com­muni­ties, clearly with little to no regard for civilian lives. Artil­lery ammu­ni­tion and “dumb bombs” do not dis­cri­mi­nate well between “legal” and “illegal” mil­li­tary targets.

This is not a war to be won by any­one, no matter how long it drags out. There are only losers, on all sides and far beyond.

Early April 2022:
As the Russian armed forces with­draw from areas around the Ukrainean capitol*, and appar­ently are repo­si­tion­ing to within and around Eastern and Southern parts of Ukraine, they leave behind wrecked and mined land, des­troyed struc­tures, and bodies of killed civilians laying around.*​ *

How many who have been killed and burned beyond recog­ni­tion, is unknown. Some say dozens, others say hundreds. One day we may know the numbers, the names of most, and also who did it to them.

So many cases of poten­tial war crimes to invest­i­gate, hor­ri­ble stories from eye­wit­nes­ses to verify, and bodies to bury. This is the dread­ful reality of the most unre­stric­ted, cruel, and unlawful, form of war, exe­cuted by the russian inva­sion forces.*​ *​ *​ *

Collecting and veri­fy­ing infor­mation related to war crimes in the midst of an ongoing war, is impor­tant, and diffi­cult. That the number and types of “onlookers” have grown over the years, helps a lot, but we will still have to wait for the work to be done, stage by stage, case by case.*​ * Will take years.
In the mean time: there's a war to end.*

Status pr. 8.April.2022:

Bodies of people killed earlier being pre­pared for burial in one area*, as more people are being killed in other areas.*
An unknown number of civilians killed and wounded after 44 days of war, and the one behind the Russian inva­sion of Ukraine shows no signs of letting up on his “special military operation”.

The world is slowly waking up to reality. Let us just hope it isn't too late to reverse the worst effects of the madness.

no news…

Finding news sources that are covering the ongoing war in Ukraine, is no problem. Finding sources that can be trusted to present factu­ally correct infor­ma­tion, can be a challenge though.
Personally, I focus on checking the quality of each piece of infor­ma­tion itself any­way I can, for as long as I need to, to be rea­son­able sure that I got it right. Names of sources carry no guaranties.

Those who want actual news updates better access as many MSM outlets as tech­ni­cally pos­sible, to make sure they can balance out the infor­ma­tion and get the complete picture.
So much unveri­fied infor­ma­tion, des­infor­ma­tion, fake stuff and lies* being released across a multi­tude of media outlets, that it pays to be critical and selective in ones news gathering, especially during wars and “special military operations”.*

I try to make sure that what few details I include about what goes on in this conflict, are correct. Image- and news-sources vary, but all bits and pieces used by me, are deemed good and reliable.

I will not, and can not, take a neutral stance regarding the ongoing war in Ukraine. The death and des­truc­tion caused by Putin's armed forces is unac­cep­table, and until it is halted and the Russian armed forces are per­ma­nen­tly removed from Ukrainean soil, there is nothing worth discus­sing on the matter the way I see it.

sincerely 

Hageland 18.mar.2022
last rev: 10.apr.2022