Dnipro, Friday morning, 4 April

I have just returned from a trip that took me from Dnipro to the Slovakia border, to Odessa, through Kiev back to Dnipro.

I have a simple observation. All talk by the usa re a ceasefire and peace is a ruse. Military traffic bringing supplies into Ukraine are at an all time high. I have done this trip west continuously since Feb 2022, at least once a month, often more. I saw 11 military convoys on the way west, all huge. There were trucks with at least 6 new Abram's tanks and at least 10 new Bradley's. One convoy had 31 hummers equipped with machine guns and light armour. The biggest supply convoy had 18 trucks under escort.

One convoy had 8 pontoon building trucks and 9 blacked out ribs. All looked nato in origin, not our own which are built in Dnipro.

Similarly 2 bus convoys with soldiers. I always stop at the same service stations on my drives west, and know all the staff who all know exactly what I want to eat and drink without me asking. All said the past 4 weeks have seen a huge increase in military trucks, and a lot of foreigners amongst them. The low loaders pulling tanks and Abrams were not Ukrainian army trucks.

I saw 11 truck roll-overs or crashes, again testament to just how much traffic is on the road, and how exhausted, and inexperienced drivers are.

I no longer believe the usa or the collective West wants anything other than war. Soberingly the trucks bearing 200 (dead) were in equally large numbers heading west, cemeteries many more flags, and the number of block posts has again increased, several with more than 100 police and soldiers stopping everyone looking for evaders, deserters, or anyone without papers they can force into their holding buses.

Over Oleksandrivka there was a half dozen helicopters flying around, again something you never see, all very low, to me looking like practising military drops.

I fear the ZPP is yet again in the coke heads sights, and I suspect they will launch an attack as soon as Russia cancels the energy ceasefire that Ukraine is violating every day. Despite what media reports, there have been no attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure that I am aware of, and power has been fully stable since mid last month, no outages at all.

Everyone here I speak to sees the stupidity of this, no one sees a future for Ukraine, and still the madness marches on.

I want to finish this post trying to reduce my absolute devastation at the above realisation, I did believe bumbling Trump might stumble on top peace in Europe, but I no longer believe it, by posting a quick chat with a friend who we helped flee the country to evade conscription, and then sent him and his family from Europe into Canada. He is a 45 year old business man from the West, Hungarian extraction. When serious mobilisation in Muchechevo started he was targeted as a fairly affluent businessman. He owns his home, a couple rental properties and was a manager for a big water company. He was served with conscription papers and could not leave, so we arranged to get him out less than legally. Once he got into Hungary I took his wife and 2 daughters across the border, and then drove them to Budapest where they flew on to Canada and he is staying in a home we bought in Ontario. He was not a good friend at the time, in fact we only met him and his family when we fled west early in the war when the ZPP was being seriously threatened. We spent a month in one of his rental homes and we became friends as our families spent time together. He helped me to find the most magnificent property in the Carpathians and we began building our mountain home there, which continues....
We touch base every few weeks, and the attached is a quick screenshot of a conversation we had yesterday. Misha is a great man, salt of the earth, professional with a lovely family, two beautiful daughters and a lovely wife. The exact same people Ukraine needs to rebuild. Misha won't be back, nor will his family. This is the true tragedy of conflict in Ukraine. Someone must pay for this, and not on some heaven or hell that so many believe in, they must pay now, they must pay before healing can begin. I understand the Nuremberg trials now, I understand the Jews need for revenge. What is happening in Ukraine today by Western leaders and neocolonial interests is no less reprehensible than the holocaust, it must be treated no differently.