Wartime memories – first ten days

For some time the concept of this blog has been to save moment for posterity, therefore I have resolved to take down some notes on how the first ten days of Putin’s invasion looked from my perspective. It is not going to be a coverage of the military conflict which can be found in the media anyway. It will be just a personal record of my thoughts, musings and observations, so that one day I can revisit it and bring days the memories of dismal days which hopefully become the history soon, with a fortunate outcome.

 

Day 1 – Thursday, 24 February 2022

My phone shut down before 3 a.m. I deliberately have not left it on a charger overnight. I decide to charge it up in the morning. I get up at 5:30 a.m., eat a small breakfast and before setting off to the swimming pool, I connect the charger and switch the phone on. I check the recent posts on Twitter. I know it has begun.

After swimming I want to take a shower. For no apparent reason it does not flow. My skin stinks with chlorine, but I head home. Warsaw carries on.

Back home I learn the worst-case scenario of full-scale invasion has materialised.

A hard day at work begins. Nobody calls off business as usual due to the cruel attack on the Poland’s neighbour. Never in my lifetime has the warfare been so close to where I live. I find it hard to focus on work, like all the workmates. As we talk, it turns out most of us were hoping Putin would hold his horses. It was naïve, he is a ruthless psychopath, ready to scorch the earth to bring in his visions. Analogies between Germany after WW1 and Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union are so vivid.

As the sunset draws, panic-mongers begin to queue up to petrol stations. Those idiots firstly send money to Putin, secondly contribute to self-fulfilling prophecy that petrol stations might run out of fuel.

As the evening comes up, I feel exhausted. Partly because of tough 10 hours at work, partly because I fear how the story unfolds. The tsar is unpredictable.

 

Day 2 – Friday, 25 February 2022

With the invasion it became clear that accounts which used to spread pro-pandemic and anti-vaccine disinformation have now become pro-kremlin and ant-Ukrainian overt trolls.

The VPN in my company notebook keeps disconnecting itself for the second day in a row. A coincidence?

In the evening I team up with my mates from Szlachetna Paczka. I devise a plan of setting up “starter kits” for refugee families which would settle down locally. My mates immediately agree to join, so I let the mayor of Ursynów know about our initiative. He promises to keep us informed.

 

Day 3 – Saturday, 26 February 2022

In the morning I walk to the Lidl shop next door and buy two bags of hygiene materials and cosmetics (Rexona and Dove away from my basket), pack the stuff into a cardboard box and drop it to a local collection point. I ask to hand it over to the Ukrainian side of the borders, where it would be more necessary than in Poland.

If I could, I would send them weapons! But more and more countries declare such form of support to Ukraine, which is reassuring.

The spurt of Poles rushing to help Ukraine is spirit-lifting, but will it be long-lasting? It will be a marathon, not a sprint.

When I think of sanctions levied to Russia by the civilised world, I believe the main reason for some countries’ reluctance towards them is the cost of financial isolation. Yes, we have to pay the price for keeping Russia at bay, but the lost profits now are a good investment is the payoff is the absence of Russian tanks in the territory of Poland.

Americans urge their citizens to leave Belarus immediately. They are in the know again.

I pop by to some petrol stations and learn temporary shortages of fuel are a fact. Not only those who panic are to blame for it. Several people take trips in their private cars to the Ukrainian border and fuel up their vehicles in advance, thus boosting demand for fuel (and sending money partly to Putin’s pocket). The aid should be better co-ordinated, I believe.

 

Day 4 – Sunday, 27 February 2022

In the morning my father and I drop my mum off to the cardiac hospital in Anin for a planned treatment (ablation) for a few days. I realise she is stressed-out, not only by the planned surgery, but also since she knows she will be sorry for Ukrainian personnel working there. Admittedly, the willingness to keep company to my mother dragged me away from the involvement in aid to Ukrainians this weekend. But given the social response, I do not need to feel guilty.

In the fourth day of war, Ukraine is doing definitely better than expected, with Ukrainians proving not only bravery, but also shrewdness.

After a few days of silence, Putin threatens to use nuclear weapons. In his paranoia, he is capable of turning large swathes of land into nuclear deserts.

Freezing Russian central bank’s assets will be more painful than exclusion of most of the country’s commercial banks from SWIFT payment system. I fear how markets react tomorrow.

 

Day 5 – Monday, 28 February 2022

In a conversation with my workmates I strongly posit the only way out would be to kill Putin. Easier said than done. He is protected too well to make an assassination doable for a foreign intelligence agent, but Putin will not be alive for long. Irate oligarchs or infuriated military officer might be the ones to liquidate him.

My Facebook account gets restricted on account of posting a derogatory film mocking at Putin. The blockade is imposed by an algorithm, hence I file a complaint. Thus I become a passive user of the platform.

At work there is no major turmoil. For many years lending to companies involved in doing business in Russia was an excessive risk to my employer. Today the restraint pays off.

Boycotting goods with bar codes starting from “4 60”? Noble, yet you will find few of them in the shops, as Russia manufactures little. If you want to spite Putin, turn off the radiator in your dwelling and walk, cycle or take public transport whenever possible. Besides, time to boycott Polish companies which carry on doing business in Russia.

This is the first day of actual carnage of civilians in that war. Shelling residential estates in Kharkiv and shooting civilians on the city’s streets bear out Russians are barbarians. This is genocide.

Besides, conceivably the premises near the Polish-Ukrainian border might be attacked by Russian aircrafts.

 

Day 6 – Tuesday, 1 March 2022

Putin has done what no man has not done for decades. He messed with nearly everybody across the world and brought so many united against him.

My Facebook account gets unlocked after a verification by a human.

There is evidence Russia used vacuum bombs in Ukraine, so far not against civilians. Such weapons are prohibited by conventions and kill even people hiding in shelters.

Russian trolls work at full blast in the Polish Internet to sling muck at refugees from Ukraine. Poland must not fall victim of disinformation!

 

Day 7 – Wednesday, 2 March 2022

I learn with antidepressants I still take, though in lower doses, I cannot be a blood donor, while blood is what Ukrainian hospital need to rescue the injured soldiers.

My mother’s ablation is called off or rather put off until Friday. She is stressed-out and it also affects me. Her health is a yet another reason for concern to me.

In the neighbourhood I spot three cars on UA number plates. Glad somebody has played host to them. I admire people who let Ukrainians stay at their homes. I am afraid that would be beyond my comfort zone. Besides, such accommodation might last months.

 

Day 8 – Thursday, 3 March 2022

A week into the war, most people have shaken off the shock and are slowly coming to terms with the new reality, meaning the war is waged just across the border. With time indifference will grow.

I no longer take it for granted the war does not spill into Poland. The membership into NATO might scare off Russia, but the attach on the Treaty will bring the world on the brink of the nuclear war. I sadly have very little impact on the course of events, hence I convince myself not to worry in advance.

Three cars on UA number plates parked outside my block of flats. Will there be many more? Or is it just a stopover?

Brent oil price reaches nearly 120 USD per barrel, while USD/PLN trades around 4.30. I see double-digit inflation coming to Poland and the threat of stagflation to the whole civilised world. The least civilised part of its will be back into the misery of late 1980s.

 

Day 9 – Friday, 4 March 2022

Wake up to the news Russian missiles nearly missed the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe. Given the lack of precision of the Russian obsolete and run-down military stuff, I suppose we were lucky to have averted a nuclear disaster. Have the invaders lost control or are they trying to blackmail the civilised world?

I somewhat fear the aggressor might attack the Polish-Ukrainian border and civilians aiding there. With the uncivilised enemy, everything is conceivable.

NATO keeps holding back from getting involved in the conflict. I believe the fear of WW3 is the key reason for their restraint. Hoping their words about getting prepared for the worst-case scenario are not just hollow declarations.

In the afternoon my mother has her ablation. Preliminarily doctors say the treatment is successful.

 

Day 10 – Saturday, 5 March 2022

So far over 700,000 (exact numbers vary depending on source) refugees from Ukraine crossed the border with Poland. Will they be able to returns to their homes and rebuild their country soon? Will Poles exhibit so much hospitality towards them as they do these days? Will European Union help Poland take the burden of allocating refugees across the member states? Are the just past the first wave of migrants? Is it just the beginning? So many questions remain unanswered.

Helping Ukrainians will be a marathon, not a sprint, while people who rush to aid are sadly likely to run out of energy and resources far too soon. I recall the beginnings of the pandemic, the spurt of responsibility and solidarity which gave way to fatigue and indifference several weeks later.

If this all is hopefully over, there will come the time to bring to account those who advocated Russia recently. The first to be cracked down on will be the deputies of Konfederusja, mentally ill Grzegorz Braun and eccentric nutter Janusz Korwin-Mikke. Support for the far-right party declined below 5%. Hope they won’t make it to the parliament in 2023.