Some Good News From Ukraine

 The latest update from Alex. 

SATURDAY "Dear friends, I want to share good news with you. I was able to connect my friends Misha and Serga with a teen club in Zhitomir. This club meets every Saturday at my friend’s Tea House. Though Misha and Serega were the youngest there they fit right in! Today’s topic of the club was the story of David and Goliath. The teens loved this story a lot, especially Serega, because he is the smallest in this group. When I treated them with Pizza, Misha told me that he never had Pizza before. This is hard to believe, but when he told me that his mother sends him every day for a package of humanitarian help, this could be possible. I hope they will find new friends there. Videos: Misha and Serga My young friends I want to express my deepest gratitude for a huge response I got from you re the list of the items for Zhitomir defense needs.  Now Motorola radios will come from Canada, UK and Australia! Amazing! Many items for that list are very challenging to get, especially medicine without prescription. God has provided the funds so he will provide the means. I received a call from the Mobilization center in Zhitomir. I need to show up tomorrow at 9 am for a medical checkup.

God bless you all, Alex"   MONDAY "Dear friends, I’m still in the military reserve, as are many other Ukrainians. My time has not come yet. One new thing I noticed today. When I was driving from Vygoda village to Zhytomyr, right before the check point I saw a small sign on the side of the road. It reads Mines No Entrance!

This explains the prohibition to visit forest zones. In order to prevent possible assault on the city, the Ukrainian army secures the checkpoints from being encircled. For almost two weeks the city of Zhitomir does not switch on street lights to make it difficult for Russian aviation to orient. This is what I hear and see almost every night in my neighborhood. Video (Sounds on): Night in Zhitomir Alex"   WEDNESDAY "Dear friends, The peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul have not reached anything significant at all.   I did not expect much from this peace talks, but there is always a hope for a miracle. I’m afraid many more lives would be sacrificed before the real peace talks starts. I think, and I want to underline that this is only my opinion, that Ukrainians would give up easily membership in NATO, and would agree to a Ukrainian borders before Feb 24 2022, that means that Crimea is part of Russia and some parts of Donetsk and Lugansk are the parts of Russia. But Ukrainians would never agree on giving up Mariupol, Kherson and Berdiansk. We would never agree on demilitarization, which was previously demanded by Putin. On a positive note. We were able to get a lot from the list of things needed in Ukraine. We will still wait for more meds and hopefully ship it at the beginning of April to Zhitomir.

The guys in the rehab center in Vigoda bought almost a year’keep of grains for feed and to seed in April. This gives them and us some certainty that we could go through some hard times after war. They also bought more ducks for their farm.

Alex"   THURSDAY "Dear friends, I thought it would be interesting for you to see how Ukranians are getting used to living in a new reality. A couple days ago the Ukrainian army pushed Russians from the outscirts Kyiv and liberated several nearby cities to the West of Kyiv. After Russian tanks left the battlefield they mined a highway. It is one of the main highways running from Kyiv to Warsaw.

Not far from the city of Borodyanka Ukrainian drivers obtain new skills. VIDEO:  Ukrainian drivers obtain new skills Alex"   FRIDAY "Dear friends, There is a price for everything in this world. Today I witnessed the price of freedom and democracy. An American surgeon wants to work alongside Ukrainian doctors. He is a trauma surgeon and has experience working in other hot spots in the Middle East. I made good contacts with Zhitomir Regional Hospital, Surgeon Department. I visited a hospital this morning to talk to the doctors. There are a lot of soldiers and civilians who were wounded in the first weeks of war. They are  mainly from the North of Kyiv and Zhitomir oblast. The doctor is afraid that if the fights intensify his department would not be able to deal with a flow of patients. There is a lack of needed meds, please consider helping us with an attached updated list of meds. I think this is the time to narrow our efforts and help this surgery department. God bless Ukraine! Alex"