1116 day of war

Hello, friends!

The weather has started to warm up here, so I washed my bike and went on my first ride of the year. It might have been a bit too early, though, because the next day, my throat started hurting, and I spent the whole week running a fever. Fortunately, I’m almost recovered now. This winter wasn’t very long, so I’ve already started preparing for the warm days ahead by planting flowers and greens on my balcony. This year, Nastya has given me the task of growing cherry tomatoes, so I’ll do my best to make it happen!

The news this week has been more optimistic. The most important update is the resumption of arms supplies and intelligence sharing, which had been a source of serious concern. I don’t fully understand Trump’s logic behind his actions and statements, so I decided to learn more about his worldview and started reading The Art of the Deal. The book explains the principles he applies in negotiations to achieve his goals. As I understand it, his strategy involves setting extremely high demands and then applying pressure until he gets what he wants. It seems like he believes that tension and public reaction to events should push both sides toward a compromise. The situation with stopping aid to Ukraine appears to follow this exact method.

However, I’m not sure this approach will work in our case because, in reality, Trump can only exert pressure on Ukraine, while his leverage over Russia is limited. I watched the negotiations, where our side agreed to a 30-day ceasefire without any additional conditions. That would have been amazing. While 30 days might not seem like much, considering the war has been going on for 1,116 days, having a month without shelling, without deaths, without the constant fear for my friends at the front who are still alive—it would have been invaluable. In any case, I believe this war will eventually have to end through diplomacy rather than the total defeat of one side, so this could have been the start of real negotiations.

We never really expected Russia to support this proposal, and in the end, that’s exactly what happened—Putin refused the ceasefire. His main goal remains the destruction of the Ukrainian state and the occupation of our land, and peace wouldn’t help him achieve that. So, judging by Trump’s book, more pressure will be placed on us. We’ll have to stay strong and rely on our president and government to withstand everything and not allow a capitulation or any agreements that would effectively destroy our country.

It’s disheartening that after so many events, we’ve ended up right back where we started—Russia still wants war, no matter what. I still don’t know how this hot phase of the war can be brought to an end.

These are difficult times, but I’m glad there are at least some attempts to resolve it. I hope the end will come soon, but we are ready to hold on as long as it takes. I believe in the best

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