“We are alive and I’ll try to write as much as possible.”  This is not the sort of thing I like to read in messages from my wife.  Neither statement should be needed, particularly the first one.

I said I was skeptical of the truce and ceasefire, and it seems that skepticism was well-founded.  Shelling and Grad rockets have been bombarding Mariupol for the past two nights.  There are confirmed casualties, including the death of a woman (a civilian) by shrapnel.  The militants in Donetsk posted on their Twitter account that they were/had taken Mariupol.  (In an interview with a militant commander in the Russian held town of Novoazovsk the day of the truce announcement, he said they still had plans to take Mariupol.)

Russia and those rebel leaders all signed this truce, and then proceeded to break it in less than 24 hours.  There are reports today of Russian armor moving across the border into the Luhansk region, expanding the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine.  Was the truce nothing more than a PR stunt and an attempt to get Ukrainian forces to relax?  There has been little reason to trust their (Russia and the rebels) so far, and this was just more proof of that.  How you do deal honorably with people who have no honor?

This conflict cannot continue as it has. I don’t want Ukraine to become like Afghanistan of the 80’s, but I don’t see how this Russian aggression can be stopped without greater assistance — including lethal ordinance — to the Ukrainian military.  In messages I sent to my Congressional representatives, I said that I didn’t want my next trip to Ukraine to be for the funeral of my wife or one of her family.  Without help, that could very well be the reason.