observing the war

… while praying for peace.

No need to be religious, or to direct prayers towards any particular deity, to pray for this unjust attack on a sovereign nation and murder of its citizens, to end. Any set of reasons, forms, and direc­tions of ones prayers to end the cruelty, is better than being indif­fer­ent to what has already been called “genocide”.*​ *
Quote: Genocide
The crime of destroying or conspiring to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.
source: The Free Dictionary

Many are pretty clear in their language when describing their reactions and relations to Putin and Russia these days…
Quote: … we must note that if the Kremlin tries to silence you, yes, then you do some­thing right, says Agnés Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
auto-translated, source: Amnesty­Press article
Quote: As of today, our countries are on different sides of world history. Russia has embarked on a path of evil, but Ukraine is defending itself & won't give up its freedom no matter what Moscow thinks. — NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL JENS STOLTENBERG
source: QUOTES-Russia invades Ukraine: Political, military leaders' reactions

When our wishes for peace clash with the reality of war, we may have to “adjust” our wishes accordingly. Being naive does not protect against bullets and bombs, and the Ukrainean army is in imme­di­ate need of weapons and other supplies.
If increased military resis­tance against the Russian invasion forces is what it takes to reverse and end this war, then that is what I per­son­ally pray for.

whole truth and nothing but…

Oh, forget it. Reasons may vary, but no-one in their right mind in main stream media or other more-or-less official infor­ma­tion channels on either side will tell “the whole” of anything in the midst of a “special military operation”, war, or what­ever any­one chooses to name what the Russians are doing in Ukraine, even if they knew. Other news sources – on sosial media and alike – can not be expected to get any closer to the truth either in what they serve.*

We are left with tiny bits and pieces of poten­ti­ally accu­rate infor­ma­tion, regard­less of what sources we rely on. The rest is mainly opinions, pro­pa­ganda, disin­for­ma­tion, decep­tions, lies, and space­fill.*
For us outsiders it pays to wait for con­fir­ma­tions – or at least some­thing very close to that – before drawing con­clu­sions based on reports in media. We are not exposed to Russian bullets, grenades and bombs – yet, and can allow our­selves the luxury of waiting for cor­rect(ed) infor­ma­tion from the battle fields. Just get those heavy defense weapons into the able hands of the Ukrainean army ASAP – pre­fer­ably last week or month, and keep the supplies coming.

Some may find it worth­while to study what lead up to Putin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 – goes back decades*, while others may choose to focus entirely on what takes place right now. It is all there, some­where, as more or less open and acces­sible docu­men­ta­tion on the internet.

History always makes for inter­est­ing reads, and reading about how despots like Putin came to power is no excep­tion. Listing up and learning about the many who helped him getting to where he is now, and their rea­son­ing, is no less inter­est­ing.
Analysts are already working over­time at explaining away how, and why, they and national leaders every­where could get it so wrong. 20/20 hindsight is a bitch.

As pr. mid May 2022, it looks like all Putin's inten­tions with his “special military operation” in Ukraine, have back­fired. Nato may get new member states and become stronger, while Russia is getting weaker. May turn into a war of attrition, with lots of human and material damage and no real military gains.

the observer…

Being a remote observer to what is best char­ac­ter­ized as indis­crimi­nate murder, is unpleasant to say the least. All the expected reac­tions bubble up, with nowhere to go but to the key­board on a lap­top computer. Not worth much, I know, but real-world options are limited.

Almost fifty years since I entered an army (the Norwegian) and put on a uniform, and I'm too old and worn out by now to do much good in any army even if I wanted to – and I don't. Understanding the sense­less­ness of war, and the neces­sity of protecting peace with all means avail­able, will have to do.
I still have faith in prayers though.

sincerely 

Hageland 12.apr.2022
last rev: 21.may.2022