The Elephant in the Room

I know - I’ve been completely ignoring the whole scenario with what has been going on over in the Ukraine - the country next to us. I’ve left it out of blog posts, but believe me, I’ve been keeping up with it daily here.

Some of you may not realize the geography of the region. Here is a map. I marked with a red dot where we live here in Poland.

I’m putting an arrow near where the the closest point of possible ‘war’ - where we’ve heard that there are Russian soldiers ready to go into the Ukraine. I also put a pink circle in the area where the city of Kiev is - the capital of Ukraine. This is where they believe the point of conflict will be the greatest.

We are about 3 hours by car from the point of the closest Russian soldiers that we’ve been told about

When my husband goes to teach in the Ukraine, he usually flies into Kiev and then goes about an hour south of there to a different city. Needless to say, he’s not flying anywhere these days. Actually he hasn’t flown there since before the pandemic started. He’s taught, but via Zoom only.

If you’ve been living in oblivion and do not realize what has been happening is, in short - Putin wants Ukraine back under his control. He has already taken part of it - did that years ago. I really don’t want to go through that now.

This map shows the parts of Ukraine that is already under Russian control. Both the gray/white area and the pale orange area are facing areas. The pale orange area has been under constant threat for years.

The USA has sent soldiers to here in Poland. I am not sure how many - but somewhere I heard something about 1700. They are stationed not far from the border of Lithuania and Belarus or Ukraine - not near Warsaw, per say.

So…the real question is - “Are we in danger?”

Probably not.

Poland is part of NATO and the European Union. Even if Putin decides to come after Poland sometime in the future, we don’t think he would do it right now. He will probably have his hands full with the Ukraine for now. People there have gotten a taste of freedom and do not want to go back to being under the controls like they had before.

My husband told me what they are doing now in Russia is telling the people that the Ukraine is going to attack them - getting people there all hyped up. I have no idea if the average person on the street believes them.

We do appreciate all of you who have asked or have been concerned about us. No, we are not planning on taking a trip to that part of the world right now. Discretion says to just stay put.

I checked out some of the videos on a Polish news website today and I screen shot these photos of American soldiers here. They are located here because it is a place where they can have access to an airport and have a place to put the 500+ American soldiers who are here. The planes are bringing in supplies.

Click on the arrows to see the next picture.

These soldiers are here to help project Poland’s borders, as far as I know. I had heard that they weren’t supposed to be sent into the Ukraine. I guess we’ll see.

No one really knows what is going to happen. But currently, we believe that here in Poland we are okay. We do have friends in the Ukraine - missionaries who are not leaving the country in spite of the US gov’t telling people to get out. If you are a praying person, I know they would appreciate prayers for them and the country as a whole.

As Americans, we’ve been able to be insulated from most wars - so I will admit to a bit of the feeling of “wow” when I see these pictures - this is ‘really happening’.

Up til a couple of years ago no one in our family has in the military. But, my son-in-law joined the Air Force - so it’s all a bit more real to me now. (They have just moved to VA.)

I’m glad to know that while it’s all a surprise to us - nothing is to God. He’s not going to be surprised no matter what happens.

If you are interested in camo fabric - Rachael does carry a whole bunch of colors.

Here.

Anyway - this is just a short post to show you some photos - esp. maps - and show you where we are and where the potential war zones are. Visuals often really help.

Thanks for coming along with me on my quilting journey. I appreciate your reading this far.

Becky Petersen15 Comments