352 Comments

My heart goes out to her and to her family. I thank the Ukrainian people for showing what fighting for democracy can look like. Thank you Nadia.

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Subscribers: IF YOU WANT TO SAY HELLO TO ALLEN, GO TO 3/10's forum, which is where he posted. I RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE FROM ALLEN about a 1/2 hour ago:

Allen Hingston

We are sitting in a Polish town waiting to get off the train and go through immigration. 13 hours since we went to the Lviv station..we sat on the train since 230 pm. It is now 2330.

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Mar 12, 2022·edited Mar 12, 2022

Nadia Povalinska, Hello and a warm welcome. Thank you for your glorious photo. Your country and the Ukrainian people are models for us. With admiration and full support to Ukraine.🌻

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You and Nancy capture the shining lesson that Ukrainians are teaching Americans in their valiant fight to save their homeland and democracy: courage and perseverance in the face of unspeakable violence.

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Michael, Nicole Wallace has been interviewing, almost daily, a man in Ukraine who is well spoken and in the heart of violence. She asked him why he and others don't just flee. He admitted he had thought a lot about this question coming from an American and came up with a fine answer. He told Nicole to ask American veterans the same question. Although American vets are not fighting on their own soil, they do fight alongside many who are fighting for democracy and protecting our democracy at home. We might say to our own vets that their courage and perseverance have been valiant in holding on to democracy here at home while fighting on foreign shores.

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Michael, Yes, the Ukrainians demonstrate values, unity, courage, hard work, ingenuity, humanity and suffering in extremis, I've noted their good humor and warmth, too. A noble and determined band of brothers and sisters.

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Beautiful, Fern.

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I just posted a message to Allen and Tanya and will let you know when and if he responds. Salud, Pam.

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Thank you, Fern. They are always not far from my consciousness.

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Fern, I just checked Allen's FB page. No activity for almost 15 hours. May we hope taht's a sign they're on the move?

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No way to know. Tanya's health, escalation of attacks in the area, Poland having difficulty handling the great number of Ukrainians in Warsaw and Krakauer... He will contact us when he can. Thanks for checking FB. It may not be an available way now to communicate.

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His FB posts tend to be reports on how the Ukrainian army is doing, or similar kinds of reports related to the situation in Ukraine. Never anything personal.

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LIVE from the NY Times

Updated

March 12, 2022, 10:46 a.m. ET5 minutes ago

'Desperation Grows in Cities Under Continued Russian Assault

President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of waging “a war of annihilation” as cities and towns came under sustained bombardment. In one southern city, hundreds took to the streets to protest the detention of its mayor, witnesses said, a sign of Russia’s struggle to subdue even places it captures.'

'Some of the last remaining civilians fled their villages with heavy fighting and smoke in the distance in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday morning.'

'LVIV, Ukraine — As Russian forces intensified their campaign of devastation aimed at cities and towns across Ukraine, including in the capital, Kyiv'

'Russian forces have not achieved anything resembling a strategic military victory since the first days of the war more than two weeks ago, and have turned to attempts to flatten whole sections of cities. Ukraine’s military said on Saturday that all attempts by Russian forces to advance on any front had been stopped and that the Ukrainian forces had inflicted “heavy losses in manpower and equipment.” The claims could not be independently confirmed but were in line with analyses by the Institute for the Study of War and other military experts.'

'In Kyiv, artillery battles in the suburbs remained intense, though the Russian advance toward the capital seemed to be on pause. In recent days, attacks by Ukrainian light infantry units and Turkish-built drones continued to have some success in ambushing Russian tanks, artillery and mechanized vehicles as they try to encircle the city,. Images from multiple satellites showed family homes on fire in a town less than five miles north of Kyiv.'

'Hundreds of people took to the streets of Melitopol in southern Ukraine on Saturday to protest the detention of the city’s mayor on Friday by Russian forces. The Ukrainian government called the detention a kidnapping and a war crime.'

'For two weeks, Russian forces have failed to take the strategic southern city of Mykolaiv and, in turn, have stepped up their bombardment of civilian targets there, causing damage to a cancer hospital and sending residents fleeing into bomb shelters. Once again on Saturday morning, residents awoke to the sounds of artillery fire and explosions.'

'Russia warned the United States that convoys with weapons sent to Ukraine would be “legitimate targets” for the Russian military, saying the “thoughtless transfer” of weapons such as antiaircraft and antitank missile systems could lead to serious consequences.'

'The U.N.’s disarmament chief said the agency had no evidence of any biological weapons program in Ukraine. Russia had accused the United States of a plot involving biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine and migratory birds, bats and insects.'

'Deutsche Bank said it was “winding down” operations in Russia, a day after the German bank’s chief financial officer said that doing so would not be practical or “the right thing to do.”

'How we verify our reporting on the Ukraine war: To cut through the fog of propaganda and misinformation on both sides, The New York Times has deployed dozens of reporters, photographers, videographers, audio journalists, writers and others to Ukraine and the countries bordering it to deliver real-time, independent, in-depth coverage of the conflict and its reverberations across the region.'

'LVIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian government dispatched dozens of buses on Saturday with urgently needed food and medicine to the hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol. Similar efforts have repeatedly failed in recent days as fighting rages around the city and land mines line some roads around the area.'

“I have to say this with pain: Mariupol remains blocked by the enemy,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in an overnight address to the nation. “Russian troops did not let our aid into the city and continue to torture our people, our Mariupol residents.” (NYTimes)

***

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Thanks for this, Fern. I shake my head at the cruelty of the Russian military and it's leader. I can't blame the average Russian citizen as they are the ones who carry the brunt of any sanctions/retaliations that have been levied against Putin and his buddies.

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Fern, Lviv was the last place we knew Tanya and Allen to be, correct?

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Mar 12, 2022·edited Mar 12, 2022

Subscribers: IF YOU WANT TO SAY HELLO TO ALLEN, GO TO 3/10's forum, which is where he posted. I RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE FROM ALLEN about a 1/2 hour ago:

Allen Hingston

We are sitting in a Polish town waiting to get off the train and go through immigration. 13 hours since we went to the Lviv station..we sat on the train since 230 pm. It is now 2330.

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Thank you, Fern. I exclaimed “Yippeee” when I saw this. It’s been a long haul for them…so glad they are safe

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You deserve a night off, Heather. Thank you for the beautiful picture from Nadia.

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What a beautiful photo and a heartfelt connection to Nadia and the Ukraine. Thank you~

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Nadia Povalinska, thank you for sharing this striking image this evening. Such beauty in a photograph! At such a profoundly sad time. Your flight from your home must be wrenching and much more than that. May you find Peace and Courage in the midst of darkness, death in your land, confusion, and the deceit and cruelty of Putin.

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After documenting Trump for the last several years, then two years (to the day, March 11, 2020) of pandemic, and now the start of what may become WW III, you are more than entitled to be tired, tired, tired.

All of us who can should also take that suggestion, get a good night's sleep and appreciate how privileged we are to not be among the 44 million Ukrainians for whom sleep is increasingly rare.🌻 🇺🇦

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Bull’s-eye, Steve. You have expressed my sentiments exactly.

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Mar 12, 2022·edited Mar 12, 2022

Dearest Heather, Your mind must be tired, but more so, your heart and soul. I have followed you from your first letter and am in awe of your stamina and will. Thank you for sharing Nadia's world.

To Nadia - Thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving us a glimpse of your world. I can only hope that things are set right for you and all Ukrainians.

Nadia: Від щирого серця дякую за те, що даєте нам змогу поглянути на ваш світ. Я можу лише сподіватися, що для вас і всіх українців все налагодиться.

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My heart breaks for the people of Ukraine

I think Putin doesn’t need to win just leave a country in rubble and many will have no homes to return to. When will we ever learn war is not the way

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From your mouth to God’s ears. When will man ever learn.

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The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind.

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I don't know if this is the place in the thread for this report and question, but I'll ask it anyway and apologize later. I am all for humanitarian aid; we should do all we can in that area. This morning I read in the Hartford Courant (America's longest continuously published newspaper) that in a county in my current state, Connecticut, police departments are gathering body armor and helmets to send to Ukraine. Is this legal? I have no doubt that it will be helpful, and little doubt that U.S. citizens could gather and send many (many, many) such gifts. I am in tears almost every day watching their brave soldiers. I also want to suggest to anyone who thinks the January 6th insurrection was "fighting for democracy" to look to Ukraine: THIS is what fighting for democracy looks like.

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Absolutely a safe place for concerns. Can we be devastated by the loss and mayhem of war and still sad to see arms and body armor being sent but no real help? Yes.

so many mixed feelings makes it hard to be hopeful for the human race where people are expected to follow the” @rules of war” but not stop the bully on the block

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I'm so torn by what you say here: follow the "rules of war" but not stop the bully on the block. Thanks for this post.

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I fear many of my fellow Americans are too self-absorbed and feel entitled to ever come close to the strength and courage of the Ukrainians. I pray I am wrong because we may be tested in the near future.

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Amen! Those involved with 1/6/21 have no clue about the realities of what civil war looks like or how it can go south in a hurry.

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Well, I guess what the 1/6 folks were doing was civil war . . . . but that's not what Ukranian in facing

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I’m afraid we never will. It seems that while we have tagged ourselves the more “intelligent” members of the animal kingdom, in hindsight that was a premature labeling. We are much more like the luckless lemmings that insist on running themselves off a cliff to their deaths. It makes little sense but then what we do to kill ourselves makes little sense either.

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Alas, how true.

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Red for the heart and passion of the Ukrainian people for their homeland. For the blood they have shed and will shed to keep their homeland. And I think of Spielberg's Schindler's List and the only color that appears in the movie as, I believe, a little girl walks in red, as here in Nadia's image.

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So true…

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Your metaphors are right on target, Bob.

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“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” ~Theodore Roosevelt

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7-it-is-not-the-critic-who-counts-not-the-man

May Ukraine know the triumph of high achievement.

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Beautiful and so poignant. Then and now. Thank you Lynell.

Compatriots United. Salud!

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Happy First Day of Daylight Savings Time, Christine!! I really loved this quote, and would venture to guess that a 21st Century Theordore Roosevelt would have surely embraced "she, her" pronouns in this otherwise beautiful essay.

Though I forgot to say, I was thinking about our President, Joe Biden, when I read those words!

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He knew because he did

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That’s right Jeri, get up on that bronc and ride, like Heather. You will get thrown so get up again, shake off the dirt, and……

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I hear my mother‘s voice in your message, Pat. She was right about a lot of other things, too.

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Subscribers: IF YOU WANT TO SAY HELLO TO ALLEN, GO TO 3/10's forum, which is where he posted. I RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE FROM ALLEN about a 1/2 hour ago:

Allen Hingston

We are sitting in a Polish town waiting to get off the train and go through immigration. 13 hours since we went to the Lviv station..we sat on the train since 230 pm. It is now 2330.

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Heartbreaking.

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A photo from what seems like another world now. I was remarking today that the conversations I was having with friends in Kyiv only 18 days ago seem like another existence, which it is. Like Lenin said, some times you live decades in a day, and that's us now.

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We had all better pray that republicans don’t take us where they are now.

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The Republicans may not have a chance to try if Putin goes off the rails even more than he has so far. His threats to date are more than mind numbing. He’s not one to simply take his marbles and go home. He wants us all to suffer if he doesn’t get the win. Praying for the people of Ukraine. 🙏🏻 Praying for all of us.

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That photo looks a little like Northern Minnesota right now. Only we have more snow!

My concern regarding the Republicans is how they (tfg and his buddies) seem to be operating from the same playbook as the russian guy. (lower case intentional) And, how the russian guy seems to be playing from the same playbook as that german guy in WWII. It's clear to me that the Republicans will change their tune but their fingers are crossed behind their backs. I pray I am wrong.

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So beautiful and heartbreaking

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That is so poignant

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On 3/11, per The Guardian's Kamil Ahmed & the AP, the pregnant, Marina Vishegirskaya, who was helped out of the shattered maternity ward in Mariupol, gave birth to the very newborn Veronika. Alive & well.

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I learned last night that Veronica means "victory" or "she who brings victory." Perfect.

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That’s good to hear, I saw that photo and wondered about Marina and the birth of her child. Thank you for putting a name to the photograph.

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Subscribers: IF YOU WANT TO SAY HELLO TO ALLEN, GO TO 3/10's forum, which is where he posted. I RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE FROM ALLEN about a 1/2 hour ago:

Allen Hingston

We are sitting in a Polish town waiting to get off the train and go through immigration. 13 hours since we went to the Lviv station..we sat on the train since 230 pm. It is now 2330.

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Beautiful! May it return quickly to a peaceful place!

Thank you Heather!

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