[Clarent]

Polish here.

I'm usually the one to laugh at the idea of things like national pride, because nationality is something you have literally zero control over, and being born over one specific part of the planet doesn't really make you any better than anybody else. Being proud in your history is weird too, considering you had no impact on how it happened, with you not yet existing and all.

But Poland has been nothing short of fucking amazing with this. Almost half a million refugees from Ukraine has arrived so far, and the entire country, including, weirdly enough, basically every single political party no matter the leaning, agreed this is the correct thing to do. People have been donating everything, from food, medicines, children's toys, sweets, fuel, inviting the fleeing Ukrainians to stay with them. I myself donated money to a large charity aimed at helping the refugees, and I've seen and read posts from my own friends and ex-friends, offering help, rooms to stay, sharing information about who can help who... It's quite uplifting, considering how we Poles can get quite fragmented, and love to complain.

The war itself is obviously an absolute atrocity. Worries about NATO's intervention triggering WW3 I think are a bit too late now. That is already happening, because IF (and this is a big if) Ukraine does lose, who says what's next? Czech Republic? Molodva? Slovenia? Poland? All of those have a history of being under Soviet control post-WW2, and I think Putin's already proven that he doesn't actually give a shit about what the West says and demands of him - what with all the war crimes, shooting at children, Russian forces using Ukrainian combat suits to blend in (actual war crime btw), bombings of cities and areas of zero military importance etc.

There might come to a point when Ukraine will be so battered that there will be nothing of value left anyway, and a nuke will be a quick dot under an i.

I'm also not so sure about the effect of sanctions, because the biggest Russian banks (coincidentally also those dealing with gas and oil trade, go fucking figure) haven't been affected. So yeah. Regular Russians get battered with increasingly weakening currency and an increasing threat of Western retaliation, while the rich ones have already peaced out with their families, away from any danger, straight into their multi million dollar properties.