Sombering Photos From The Donetsk Region, Ukraine

Putin, whatever his game is and whatever he says he has or hasn’t done, is causing thousands of people in Ukraine wide-scale grief. Donetsk has been overrun with Russian backed rebels (i.e. Russian forces) and innocent people are being blown from their homes or running head long to escape the troubled area. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced.

Putin seems to be on the rampage and neighbouring countries are fearing another land grab. In my naive mind I like to think that Putin wouldn’t be daft enough to muck about with countries who are fully subscribed to NATO like Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. The triumvirate of Baltic countries were only freed from their Russian shackles in the early 90’s. I’m sure they fear the worst.

Whatever Russia is up to it certainly feels sinister. An Estonian border guard was captured late last year and hasn’t yet been returned. Bear bomber aircraft have been chaperoned from the edges of UK air space. Something is brewing and I genuinely hope it’s taken off the heat before it boils over.

I found the following images on a Russian site showing with depressing realism what daily life tastes like in the Dontesk region these days. People are left cowering in basements and eking out a meager existence under daily rocket fire. They have no gas or electricity and food is in short supply.