Sorry to depress you. It depresses me as well. I have a few friends in Ukraine, and a lot of friends next door in Romania. I worry for their safety.

I worry very much about the financial future. We got too greedy, and it looks like the US petrodollar is going to tank. Hungary and one other EU counrty (name escapes me) have now announced they'll buy Russian gas in Rubels. Germany is going to buckle (I get ads in German on YouTube preparing us for this). Austria said from the start we'll buy in Rubel (OMV has a lot of business in Russia since decades).

Once that embargo fails, there will be hedges on the oil embargo as well. The EU leaders aren't going to end their careers for the US MIC in a clearly unwinnable war.

So the dollar will tank. We have dollar business and I have a lot of retirement assets I can't move in dollars. When the dollar tanks, so does a big part of my retirement.

So I'm depressed right along with you.

Longer term a return to a multipolar world is good. Short term it sucks.

Russia has taken Lyman. Closing in on Sloviansk. Looks like they will have the Donbas soon. As I noted, Russian advances are getting quicker near the Donbas Line. Once they consolidate there I expect then they'll either look at Kharkov or Mykolaiv on the way to Odesa. Or both.

Semi-trustworthy reports I saw since my last comment yesterday say Russia has pulled and is sending trainloads of those old but functional tanks out of storage. I expect they'll start putting those behind front lines to secure the territory they have won, while building up fixed emplacements.

By the time Ukraine and Russia get back to serious negotiations things will look pretty bad for Ukraine.

The cognitive dissonance is already starting in the US MSM.