A war to decide fate of the world

After a quiet and comfortable Christmas at home in Omagh, work has resumed. I have said my goodbyes, crossed Europe, and I’m journeying back towards what, in years to come, the world might reflect on as one of the most deciding wars in modern history.

Fuel costs

LAST night, I hosted a talk in Holzminden, Germany, to raise funds.

For those who attended, I laid out what Legenda have done in Ukraine to date.

In strictly financial terms, that can roughly be chalked up to the provision of around €50,000 worth of aid in the form of medical equipment, as well material assistance provided for the Cargo 200 teams.

Also, however, with Ukraine being the vast country that it is, diesel eats up a huge portion of our expenditure.

We travel everywhere by land. A lot of the time, we are living out of a car, jeep or van.

But, while a more economical solution is not obvious at the moment, I have been working on coming up with some way to reduce fuel costs.

I have been projecting months down the line, calculating the money we expect to have, and working out how we can use those funds to produce the greatest amount of good possible.

There is so much to be done, and resources must be handled and distributed with the utmost care.

The immediate future

WE will soon be back into Ukraine, and our focus will be to re-establish the training programme, and get our next mission online.

At the same time, we will be assimilating two new volunteers into our ranks.

One of those new team members is from the south of England – he is an explosives trainer.

The other will go out and spend four weeks embedded with a Cargo 200 team near the front line.

We have supplied him with a Land Rover, and all of the kit that he requires to acquit his duties to the best of his ability.

New Year, same war

IT seems that the use of Iranian drones to terrorise the civilian population has not ceased; the Russians reminded us of that on New Year’s Day.

While many at home were clinking glasses and wishing each other well, a massive attack was launched on Kyiv, when around 80 Iranian drones rained down on the capital. Clearly, Russian savagery, whether it be driven by desperation, or some other destructive force, has not gone away.

Mercy does not appear to occupy a place on the Russian military’s list of New Year’s resolutions.

Russian propaganda

THE Russian media have been viewing the latest events in an odd way, to put it unduly kindly.

Observing the Russian media’s coverage of the war is not only scary, but surreal. It has been getting stranger and stranger.

Only the other week, I saw a Russian news station show people celebrating Ukrainian deaths with a dance.

It would remind you of the kind of stuff that might be leaked from North Korea. It seems embarrassing and delusional. At times, it has been coming close to self-parody.

Russians were once subtle, tactful, almost artful, propagandists.

But no more.

As the war has dragged on, their coverage has become more blatantly biased; to the point that it seems like they have virtually abandoned all efforts to even maintain the pretense that they are attempting to relay the reality of the war.

In saying that, I am watching it with western eyes. It’s hard to know how these news reels are playing in the mansions of Moscow, or the remote farm houses of rural Russia.

The battlefield

ON the battlefield, the Russians have failed to secure crucial strategic locations.

Their attempts to take over several Ukrainian cities have been thwarted, and this is likely to undermine their ambitions to launch a counter-offensive over winter – especially in the Donbas.

Clearing the lens

WAR can be a difficult thing to view accurately from afar.

It is, at its very core, partisan. So many parties have a vested interest in controlling how war is perceived.

Alongside the war of blood and bullets, a struggle to control the story of the war is bitterly fought, too.

However, you cannot lie about who has control of where.

At the moment, the Russians will be unhappy with their inability to capture key positions. As we head deeper into the winter, the Ukrainians will be reviewing the annals of military history; looking at the current landscape of the war, and they will like what they see.

Thanks to donors

I WOULD like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has donated to Legenda. Your money is everything. You are saving lives.

When all is said and done, that is what this is all about.

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