... with my hands together in prayer for our Ukranian friends. A woke up to see I'm not praying hard enough. I promise to do it better. I did go to private school, but I wasn't the best student.
Maybe someone else on this forum could lead us with some better words than I can come up with, for all of us, please!

Not really, Garrison. Let's just keep praying.

We have a news feed here in the UK from a few of our top UK TV journalists who are in the centre of Kiyv and who are giving us their best view of events. The impression that we are getting is that the Ukrainian army is fighting back hard, and that the general population of the Ukraine are not far behind in arming themselves against the Russian agressor. The Russians might have the weapons, but the Ukrainian people have the resolve to win this. We sit and watch and, as private citzens, are helpless. Some of us indeed might wish to be standing alongside the citizens of the Ukraine with an AK47 in hand. But at least now most of Europe is waking up, banning Russian trade and flights, commerce and financial transations, and sending support and - in some cases now - weapons. Europe is behind the Ukraine. Indeed, a good part of the whole World is behind the Ukraine.

But let us also remember that many of the young Russian soldiers in Putin's army do not really want to be fighting this war at all. It is not a war such as the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, nor the war against Napoleon that Czar Alexander's Russian armies fought in 1812, and which we enjoy modelling with the background of history behind us.

This is real time. And it is completely unnecessary. Let us continue our prayers to end this conflict, see some sense and move towards a peaceful co-existence. Amen to that.

Well said.

Actually Garrison, your prayers may have been answered but not in the way you wanted. I'm hearing that both sides are going to meet for negotiations, on the border between Ukraine and Belorus. I hope this is true. The first thing they need to negotiate is a cease-fire. The second thing is to negotiate is a withdrawal of the Russian army. Finally maybe a few compromises by both sides. Ukraine stays neutral( ie. it doesn't join NATO ) but is allowed to join the European Union. Maybe also, have a referendum in those two so-called break-away republics, do they really want to break away from Ukraine? If the referendum is not rigged, the results may surprise the Russians!
Also the leaders of Ukraine have to look at this in the long term: Putin can't live forever...
someday Russia will have a new and hopefully a better president... unless Putin has himself cloned!

Paul K.

I hear you Garrison. All we can do is pray and trust that God's infinite knowledge is greater than our own. I know he has a plan for all of us and the world as a whole. And as Paul said, he may be answering them just not in the way that we'd like. In the meantime all we can continue to do is pray.

I do hope that today's peace talks will help to end the conflict quickly, and that the soldiers of all countries involved may help to heal the wounds of the war, instead of being abused as tools of violence to bring more pain, death and destruction upon people who are neighbors, family and friends.

I wish to live in peace with Russia. I wish for Ukraine to be free. I wish for the soldiers of both countries to return unharmed to their families, so they can enjoy their lives. My heart is bleeding, knowing that so many Ukrainian civilians and young soldiers on both sides of the war are losing their lives.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness are the basic rights that we as humans should grant each other. No matter what nationality, political or ethnic background we may have, we should put aside our differences, and work together instead, towards the common goal of making this planet a better place for all of us.

Please stop the war.

Dear Strelets TEam,

I wish you and your families all the best and that this unnecessary war will not harm you. This is my wish for the entire Ukrainian people who were forced into this war just because they wanted to be free and have their own freely elected government.

At the same time, I am also very sad about the killed Russian soldiers who were sent into this war of aggression by their dictator. In the last 20 years there have been so many good developments in cooperation with Russia and the peaceful alignment of mutual interests.

Why was all this now thrown overboard and damaged for decades?

The Russian people should hold Mr Putin accountable for the things, he has done.