And still they fight on in Ukraine.

 And still they fight on in Ukraine.

And still the bombardment is relentless. Amid the cold blooded murder, the red blooded brutality, the senseless killings, mutilations, violations, the vile hostilities, the cruel tortures and the endless, wailing sirens over this delightful city, nothing will ever be quite the same again. Ukraine is under fearsome attack. The gushing waterfalls of tears and the helpless sobbing among despairing families are the constant backdrop to this war torn zone that may never be able to repair the psychological and human damage done to their Ukraine. The good, honest, law abiding citizens of Ukraine are trying to hold everything together, a dignified face to the rest of the world but they are inconsolable and distraught. 

Meanwhile in the noble cities of Kyiv, Lviv, Sloyvarsk and Zaporizhzia, the battles rage on unabated, loud, thunderous cacophonies that now threaten complete destruction of a country that just wants to be left alone. Never again do they want to be bothered again by quarrelsome and obnoxious neighbours who just want to wipe them off the face of the Earth. To describe Putin and his cronies as anything than other as a despicable piece of rubbish would be the grossest understatement. The problem that faces the Ukraine is that. power crazed and demented as he is, Putin will probably not stop until he gets exactly what he is looking for. 

This morning Ukraine awoke to find that one of its vital means of transport had been blown up and burnt to the ground. The city of Kramastorsk had probably never seen anything like this. Suddenly, a hail of rockets crashed mercilessly into a railway station with a mighty and devastating blow. For a minute or two Ukraine held its breath yet again. By the time it had taken in the sheer and terrifying magnitude of what had happened, any within the immediate vicinity must have feared the worst. It had been too late. Were there deaths and casualties? Maybe it was the most stupid of questions. Of course there were or so one presumes. It would have been a miracle if anybody had survived.

But the smoking ruins of a city in flames, the charred wreckage of old, rusty tanks, the skeletal remains of what used to be building girders and twisted metal were all the poor people of Ukraine could see. We at home have been subjected to the familiar sights, the tormented faces, the agonised expressions, the weeping women, the helpless mothers and grandmothers, the suffering, the heartrending homelessness of hundreds and thousands of families. You still found it almost impossible to believe that one country could inflict such life changing and brutal punishment on another neighbouring country. You tried to absorb what was going on but for the life of you, words just seemed totally inadequate. 

Women, wives, husbands, grandmothers and grandfathers staggered around desolate, haunted streets, looking piteously towards the heavens, crying profusely over and over again. One grandfather looked as though his world had quite literally fallen apart in a matter of minutes. He spoke to a TV war correspondent who was simply there to convey all the misery and anguish we could already see. His eyes were red and dripping with yet more tears. Why, oh why had it come to this? Would Ukraine ever recover again? Will the Russians ever be able to look the rest of the world in the eyes and admit to their shame, their guilt, their responsibility and their unforgivable complicity in this terrible act of genocide?

Last night, BBC reports would suggest that peace had been restored, that an eerie silence was still temporarily hanging over Ukraine. But then you looked at the worst hit areas of Kyiv and Lviv which were still fighting the great fight, driving back their evil antagonists defiantly and then celebrating with several bottles of vodka in a distant bunker. It is all unbearable to watch but that's what war does and always all. Of course we bow our heads in disgust because that's the obvious and most human of reactions when somebody attacks you without any semblance of provocation. 

None of this will ever know when a definitive conclusion will be reached in this horrific conflagration. The hearts of millions across the world are of course with the Ukranian people. Of course they are victims of circumstances and must be dreading that things may get worse before they get any better. The middle aged men on the streets of Ukraine are utterly shell shocked and dumbfounded. They try to understand but, here we are in what seems like an interminable war on the ground and there are no sentences or explanations because nobody can get their heads around this horror show. At some point the lovely country of Ukraine may finally be released from its never ending cycle of pain, its traumatic mortification, the sense that here is a war that may never end. Let us be in their thoughts forevermore.