Dnipro, Thursday night, 28 November
A very cold week, heavily overcast all week so solar not much help. This mornings missile and rocket attacks have now completely fucked the countries energy grid it seems. Much of the country has still not had power for most of today, in Dnipro we lost power just before 5am, back on at 12, off at 4 pm and we are not expecting more power till at least 11 pm, if at all.
Friends in most major cities who we have on a group chat said very few missiles and drones were intercepted, and that most found their targets. The damage to the energy grid which is the worst so far, also bears this out. I am not sure that Dtek will be able to recover from this, their workers are truly heroic but given the sub stations, transformers and grid infrastructure that has been destroyed in today's strike, which lasted more than 12 hours, I won't hold my breath. Dtek is also under severe financial strain, and being refused govt or eu assistance, likely as a power grab where the govt will nationalise Dtek, or Eu companies will try and enter the energy market. Rinat Akhmetov is a crook, given, but he has at least used his stolen wealth to create more wealth and jobs in Ukraine, and he is the only oligarch who has tried to speak commonsense and save Ukraine from the fools in power.
We have a number of rental apartments in Kiev that we have rented out, and our property manager messaged today to tell me 3 of the 7 have approached her to ask for an extension of this month's rent due date, as their pays are not going to be paid until the second week of December, instead of tomorrow. All work in govt, so that appeals to the financial situation in Ukraine. It cannot be far off complete collapse. The most recent property we bought last month is still vacant, and our manager said people are leaving Kiev in increasing numbers as no electricity creates chaos in big cities, and that many people believe there will be a serious Russian strike on Kiev retaliating for attacks on Russia. I hope they are all fleeing into the Eu, and travel safely. They are probably right re an attack on Kiev coming soon. I just hope they shoot straight, and aim to remove our corrupt, war criminal Kiev cabal which will do Ukraine a favour, and perhaps bring about peace after 11 years.
Our family are well prepared for winter, no electricity for us is more of an inconvenience, and we are set up to help a lot of people in our area with emergency power, fresh filtered water and if needed emergency accommodation as we have a few guest houses in our compound. We have had a steady stream of people we know, or friends of friends, who were evacuating areas close to the front, stop here with us for a few days before heading further west, and as the fighting moves closer, I don't suppose that flow will decrease. I lose track of who is here and who has left, I just nod and say hi to everyone, and later my partner tells me who they are. All are tired, and I cannot imagine how hard it must be for them leaving everything behind, and not knowing if, or when they will return, and then to what.
Running companies is very difficult. Power outages, and mandatory closures during alarm periods make banking, doing anything involving govt, or even shopping complex. All banks, and govt deparments close during air raid sirens, a stupid rule, as everyone just stays in the building waiting, including long lines of people milling and around in confined spaces. Everyone wants to retain their place in line, and no one here has ever heard of a number dispenser which would allow some order. Sometimes alarms are just 30 minutes, some times, like today's are 12 hours long. Some shops stay open, others don't, so you learn where to shop, and where not to. Cafes and restaurants universally stay open, and all have back up generators now. You need earplugs when walking around the city, but with the cold, big jackets, beanies and gloves mute it a bit.
We are back to serious numbers of ambulances coming in and out of town, it dropped off for a bit, but back up again now, although far less military vehicles. I drive as an evacuation driver for a group here who are now focused on the Zaporoshnye front, and every day Russian advances continue. I have heard talk of a Ukrainian counter offensive in this area, it is not possible that it is true. Far more likely Syrsky trying to keep his job, and he is doing a terrible one, or trying to push the West into supplying more equipment and ammunition. Supplies are very low, friends we know fighting in every front from Kharkiv to Kherson say they cannot get enough of anything, including food, and warm clothes. I don't know anyone fighting in Kursk, but I do have an employee in Sumy, and he speaks of very low morale.
There has been a definate increase in TCC/Police roaming the city, blocking roads and trying to increase mobilisation. Almost daily sms come to our phones requesting people to come to a mobilisation office and you can choose in what area you want to serve, and they will honour it...... No one is stupid enough to fall for it. I was stopped twice today, and the second time I had a chat with a police officer who told me they had nabbed only 1 person the entire day. He also told me all military deferments are being cancelled as at Feb, and everyone will have to reapply for a deferment. This just means everyone will need to bribe someone again to get another deferment, it's just a money making exercise.
Watching Trump appointments and listening to those speaking about Trumps intended actions re Ukraine, I am convinced I was right, Trump is simply going to make everything worse, which is hard to accept, but they are already saying all the wrong things. Trump could stop this entire escalation now by saying if one more western missile is fired into Russian territory, his first executive order will be to withdraw from Nato. Western escalation would stop on that day. He hasn't, he won't, and if the world survives till his inauguration, the slide to the abyss will continue, likely at a more rapid pace.
While we all sit around waiting for Putins reaction, which I expect will come tonight, maybe Friday night, one thing stands out to those of us who have lived this nightmare for 11 years. Where are all the adults in the room? Where is the humanity? Where is the commonsense?
Unfortunately, it can only be found in any quantity in Moscow, and in Beijing, and I don't expect that will be enough to save the world.
To those eternal optimists, I apologise for this post, but I don't see a happy ending here for Ukraine, or the West, perhaps the world. Many Ukrainians sat around for 8 years while the Kiev cabal bombed eastern Ukraine, some of us stood up every now and then and said it needed to stop, 74 percent of Ukrainians voted for zelensky when he promised to stop it. But we still let it continue when it was clear he had lied, none of us picketed in the streets. In the west we lived oblivious to the pain and suffering, and that wilfull ignorance will now come back and bite us on the arse.
