Now you suddenly care about Ukraine

I pray for the innocents in this horrible war. Not all Ukrainians are innocents, not the least of whom is Zelensky.Day 10 / Russian Invasion"This morning, I awoke at dawn to news of airstrikes in 5 different cities within a span of 15 min. By 9am, I stood in my apartment living room not knowing if I’d ever return and said a prayer.We had decided the day before that we would move west. There was anxiety in the air, supplies were getting more scarce, and many were feeling a heightened sense of danger. We also heard that some suspicious men were seen near a bomb shelter located under an elementary school. They were saboteurs and a man confronted them before they could do any harm. That man paid his life to save those people sheltered. We were staying at a bomb shelter under a school so that story rattled all of us. We also had Vova's 85-year-old mother to protect. When we asked her if she’d want to go, she admitted that it did seem like the only thing to do. She also said she didn’t want to die outside of Ukraine. Despite the fact that I knew many others were already gone and so many others leaving, it was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. I wept when we made that decision.In a fairly short time, we had a caravan of 5 cars. We would leave early and take only essentials.I can’t believe I’m a refugee.We woke up early, packed the car, and took two of our neighbors with us. What is normally a 15 min drive took 2 hours because of all the checkpoints. Czech hedgehogs everywhere. Blocked roads. Machine guns. Rifles. Shotguns. Military and Territorial Defense teams. There were hundreds of cars; many of them with signs that said ‘Діти’ - children. As soon as we got out of Kyiv there was a sense of relief. We were moving away from most of the danger but knew that we could still run into trouble. We prayed for a safe journey.Along the way, we kept our eyes on the news. We listened to President Zelensky’s speech from the night before, read about new developments regarding countries that are abandoning the Russian market. At 10:57 we were reading that the Russian military had blown up part of a train track in Irpen that would disrupt service and re-route evacuees. One of our caravan drivers lives in Irpen. More Ukrainian protesters took to the streets to push out Russian troops. We drove past buildings in ruins from airstrikes including civilian homes."Airstrikes continued throughout the day inKyiv12:27 airstrike in Chernihiv12:28 airstrike in Kropivnistkogo12:28 airstrike in SmiilaA SU-25 Russian fighter jet was shot down and the pilot was captured.13:34 airstrike in ChernihivThe news reported the death of a baby whose exposure to the cold led to pneumonia14:20 airstrike in Voznesensky14:25 airstrike in Yuzhnoukrainsk14:26 airstrike in MykolaievWe’re getting stopped at every checkpoint because we don’t have a license plate in front. The roads are so bad it actually fell off and we didn't know till later.Herson protestors chase out Russian occupiers from the city centre.15:48 airstrike in Poltava15:49 airstrike in Kyiv16:35 airstrike in Chernihiv16:50 airstrike in Liitak16:51 airstrike in Chernihiv"We learned later that the soldier who shot down the Russian plane was just 10 days earlier working his normal job at the post office. The plane he shot down is worth 45-65 million dollars. Imagine what countries could do with that amount of money."17:33 airstrike in Vodyana-Lorino and Vozsiyatskei and Mikolaiv17:52 airstrike in Kyiv"We are almost at our destination.There are heavier checkpoints toward the city where we’ll rest for the night. It’s important we arrive before curfew. We don’t want to be mistaken for saboteurs. Some saboteurs were caught a few days ago in the town where we’re staying. They were trying to set booby traps.We arrived at the home of the YWAM director here. They had prepared dinner for us! Their house was warm. And I realized that I would be sleeping on a bed for the first time in 10 days. As we were getting ready for dinner we heard sirens go off. We all jump; alarmed.Nowhere in Ukraine feels safe right now. I’m not sure anywhere feels safe no matter how far west we go." Now you suddenly care about Ukraine? https://imgflip.com/i/67mecl -