Dear Family,

One characteristic of a letter is that it can have many topics in it. So here are a few snippets of life in Ukraine.

Depopulation and wasteland— you’ve seen pictures of wanton bombing and destruction and perhaps assume it’s meant to demoralize the population. But the russian goal is more serious: Ukraine without Ukrainians. Russia says it has "evacuated" over a million people to its territory, including around 183,000 children, "from dangerous areas of Ukraine”. Why do this? because basically anyone left in an occupied village (especially young people) could be agents of resistance. So our team delivering humanitarian aid to occupied territories says one component is starvation. The stores are empty and nothing is delivered, so eventually you have to move, either to free Ukraine or to Russia. But people try to hang on. Nazar (who is in the southeast, usually working with orphanages) gave me a video clip of one almost deserted town, where the orphanage director and five of his staff have stayed (along with 3 children who couldn’t be moved) and are basically running a little food center from their basement. Through a circuitous route, a Protestant group brings them a minivan of food each week. Of course, the Russian troops at the blockposts are basically criminal gangs (and perhaps underfed criminal gangs), so they often take half the stuff (unless it’s baby food or medicine). That's why you put crates of apples on top of the good stuff, and then the “orcs” (as they’re called) just take a little. After you deliver food, you bring back people who want to escape —they have sometimes walked 100 km on foot to get close to the edge of the zone.

The value of a human life — in case you’re wondering, it’s now about $300. That’s what it cost two weeks ago to bribe your way through the 5 blockposts from Mariupol into free Ukraine.

Life as an IDP— In addition to the 5 million Ukrainians now in other countries, the UN says there are over 7 million IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) forced to move inside the country (about 20% of the population). When they come here to Lviv, they need housing and jobs (I have had taxi drivers from Mariupol and Slovyansk, working a week after they arrived). There are lots of designs for housing solutions and we have the first “modular town" here in the main city park next to the Ukrainian Catholic University. My photos below were taken when still unoccupied, a few days before the Prime Minister of Poland opened the container town. The residents receive food vouchers to eat at our UCU cafeteria.

Kids in church — during Holy Week, a friend told me of overhearing two little kids standing up by the sanctuary. Boy 1: “At least nobody’s shooting us here”. Boy 2: “I want to be a soldier when I grow up."

Supplying the army one by one — everyone has friends in the army and hears what works and doesn’t. For example, the belts the army gives you are too thin and you can’t attach anything heavy to them. So my buddy Hryts bought huge amounts of seat-belt strap material and buckles and had strong belts made from them. My friend Vasyl’s cousin on the front got some projectiles that he didn’t know how to use. So he called Vasyl who called his friends in the US and got the instruction guide (190 pages) and two days later they were using the stuff.

Supply chain —a classmate of mine (doctor from Arkansas) is en route to Lviv this weekend but still in Warsaw because his luggage (and that of 15 other people) didn’t arrive…on a direct flight from Chicago. Obviously, there wasn’t space on the plane, and that’s because everyone has lots of extra luggage. Some Ukrainian diaspora “mules” are just flying back and forth to Europe every week bringing night vision equipment or other things a shipping company can’t export from the US without a license. I heard of one woman with 50 pieces of baggage (you know a well-dressed lady needs a different bullet-proof vest for every day of the month).

Medical needs — perhaps the saddest thing for me this week was going through a large room of donated medical equipment and pharmaceuticals and then unexpectedly seeing a stack of one of the frontline essentials… body bags.

Gasoline — since the Russians have been blowing up fuel depots, there is now a shortage of gasoline in the country and basically reserved for the military. Oil/gas used to come from Russia/Belarus by train and pipelines, from the Gulf by tankers to Odesa — both of which are now cut off, so the local company here is buying it on the spot market in Rotterdam and then shipping through Germany and Poland —very expensive but still available to civilians in a few stations and more available here in Lviv than elsewhere, but I expect that will stop soon. It brings back memories of Dr. John Hewitt, who as a medic had access to fuel ration tickets during WW2. Fortunately, I can walk everywhere I need to in 45 minutes. After the military, the highest priority is for tractors for the spring planting but that is already at risk.

Peace!

Jeffrey

R

Thanks for posting. We all thirst for real info because you can trust nothing from any form of U.S. media.

Thank You! The Ukrainians are doing an amazing job with limited resources your letter shows why!

Wow jost wow. Pray for the people there.
Could us Americans deal with this in our country, maybe. We would have to come together more than what we are now.

Gald Pelosi made an unannounced trip to the Ukrainian capital on Saturday to do all she can to Help.

Blackmailed by zielinski or her and Kamala are about to be sacrificed

Russia’s plan is just to F up Ukraine. If it hasn’t fallen yet, it won’t. They will just destroy whatever’s left.

Best thing Pelosi could have done for Ukraine and the US would have been to take a bullet, bomb, or mine blast. She would have been a martyr and no longer around to screw stuff up here.

Actually that's exactly what were doing by sending arms, money and soldiers to one of the most corrupt countries in the world. A country who's president is funded by Neo-Nazi's who've been murdering their own people since at least 2014. Ukraine is going to be wrecked and it will be due to them trusting and listening to clowns in DC.

Bingo

Yes. Thank you.

Man yall sure like your MSM and masks and ministries of truth. Smdh

I believe the Ukraine people and soldiers are fighting the good fight. I also believe Zelenski is not legit. He's on tv every single day begging for military aid and loving every second of the limelight. How is it Putin hasn't killed him yet with all these public appearances? Something stinks here.

Thanks for the info kind of like what I got in a letter from a friend.

Was this like a repost from FB or your actual cousin?

Actual cousin, actual email

I guess I am asking did a close relative really send this to you directly?

Yes,,my cousin, he is a millionaire, has never worked, about 50 yrs old,,, and went over there to help build the Catholic church back up 20 yrs ago. He mentions Ukrainian Catholic University in his email, that is who he works for.

So does he stay/Live in Ukrain?

He has been there 20 yrs ------- running the university.

A Ukrainian friend of mine, who has been in this country for 35 years, got a letter from his cousin requesting help in getting camouflage fabric. She is running a volunteer group sewing uniforms for the Ukrainian Army and had run out. I referred him to a group collecting funds and another friend said he knew someone that might be able to supply fabric.