Dnipro Sunday morning, 5 May
I have just returned from a 4 day trip to sort passport issues in Western Europe at Aus embassy. I was able to catch up on a few missed programs from the Duran and others. As I was driving, and fast, I kept most comments but wanted to make them here. They are in no particular order.
1. I drive to West of Ukraine at least every other week, and have been for a year. At no time have no I noticed any significant change in munitions and equipment coming into Ukraine, or damaged equipment leaving. The lie that there has been a drop in equipment supplies any time is just that, a lie. The past 6 months have seen no drop in deliveries.
In my Canada trip in Jan I met logistics expert from the California who had been sent here to fix supply chain issues, we sat together on the plane and he told me supplies were bottlenecked in Poland and he was sent with a team to fix it.
2. On this trip, I drove from Prague to Dnipro in one go, 26 hours straight, and i was buggered when i got here. There was a significant increase in tanks, fighting vehicles, artillary etc being taken west on low loaders. There were 3 huge convoys of badly battered batallions not far west of Dnipro, heading west. Very badly battered in old suv, trucks and buses. In one service station I ran into 4 soldiers from one battalion, a Dnipro region battalion i won't say which, but these men were destroyed. They came from a group of around 100, it had been reduced to under 20, and withdrew as they ran out of equipment. They were returning home, without orders, they were simply quitting. I bought them coffee, lunch etc and gave them my business card and asked them to contact if I could help in the future. One man was in tears, both his father and brother were in his batallion, both killed. This is as fucked up as the world can be. Manpower is now Ukraine's catastrophic issue.
3. I had occasion to visit 2 Ukrainian embassies while away to drop some people off, both had lines of Ukrainian men out the front to sort issues before the deadline to do so for military aged men who have fled.
4. I was given 8 speeding fines in Ukraine, 3 by police, 7 cameras which are now popping up everywhere. I have no issue with this, break the law, pay. But, this is a huge uptick on normal. I chatted with one cop on my way out who was apologising for giving me a ticket for 13 km over the speed limit, I was doing 30 over. The car was ticket is around 4.50 usd. I told him not to apologise at all. He told me that police had to issue a minimum of 30 tickets per day, or face deployment. I asked if he was joking, he told me it was a directive and that is why police where all out and about. Police were everywhere. I have no issue with this, I am merely relating it.
5. Border control has a huge increase in numbers, mostly young, many women, all incompetent. They scrutinised everything, and everyone. Likewise there is a huge increase in the number of block posts, and they search many cars looking for deserters or men of military age. I saw several apprehensions. You can now buy a position on border control, or pay for deployment of the block posts.
6. Everyone j spoke to on both outward and inward bound want this war stopped, do NOT support zelenksy, and do NOT want to join the eu or nato.
Anyone who knows me knows I only relate what I see myself, hear myself from someone actually involved, or hear from a close friend that I know has his own first hand knowledge.
One last thing I want to note. I have had some exposure to frontish line activities in this conflict when evacuating people, and some soldiers earlier in th conflict. I was at Churchill's restaurant when the sbu building was destroyed 150 metres away, and of course have nightly raids and missile attacks. But I am just an average person, not a soldier, not one of the truly brave men who stand the line despite not believing in this conflict. But, I recognise in myself some shell shock for want of a better term. While I was in Austria and Czechia car door slamming, a helicopter overhead, loud sounds etc made me jump and invoked small panic. I raced to get home here to be here before this coming weeks activities, which we all know are coming. I drove 26 hours straight to ensure i got back yesterday. If I have the above feelings, and I am not a coward, I have been around the world to many dangerous places, and experienced a lot, but if I feel like this, how must the men at the front, and the families j have evacuated to safety feel. How about their children. This was is sick. They West is terminally sick. I for one will not ever forgive, or forget.
