[TrumpCard]

Some intel from my business partner with software and graphic design team in Ukraine...

Most of her team are in Vinnytsia, which is about 2 hr drive SE from Kyiv. Ever since the start of the war, they had heard air raid sirens but never really been hit with anything. Yesterday I talked with her and she told me last week two missiles hit the town, a medical building, and I think she said an office or municipal one. One of the missiles hit just .3 miles from her lead developer's home. He speculates that because it is a pivot point for traffic to and from Poland, that's why it was hit, who really knows.  The upshot is her team that can get out of Ukraine are now doing so.

Unfortunately, this means women only. Healthy men of tithing age are not allowed to leave. And Yuri (lead engineer) now believes that the plan in Ukraine is to basically draft all fighting age men into the army or security forces this Fall or Winter.

I do not know if this is good news or bad. For my partner and me it sucks, because Yuri is a damn good engineer and a great dude, but is it good or bad for Ukraine, and of course, Russia, maybe even Europe and the world? If women mostly leave and all fighting age men are drafted to fight, what happens to the country's fragile economy and is NATO/EU going to fund Ukaine's government - that will see tax receipts plummeting while seeing war costs escalate - while continuing to provide military aid?

Then again, if Ukraine's fighting force expands by I don't know 500k-1,000k  more fighters, could they overwhelm Russia and/or weaken its forces so much it has no choice but to retreat?

I'm sorry to hear that the war is impacting you personally.  And that your lead developer and others on your team may be conscripted.  Hopefully, as a talented software engineer, he can find a military job away from the front lines and stay safe until the war ends.  

I continue to think that money will not be much of an obstacle for Ukraine in the short- to medium-term because: (1) people are fighting to avoid being slaughtered, tortured, raped, etc, so they will be willing to live with a lot less money than they previously had; and (2) the West has a brobdingnagian incentive to fund this war since it's weakening a key adversary at very low cost in life and limb to those Western countries.

[TrumpCard]

Some intel from my business partner with software and graphic design team in Ukraine...

Most of her team are in Vinnytsia, which is about 2 hr drive SE from Kyiv. Ever since the start of the war, they had heard air raid sirens but never really been hit with anything. Yesterday I talked with her and she told me last week two missiles hit the town, a medical building, and I think she said an office or municipal one. One of the missiles hit just .3 miles from her lead developer's home. He speculates that because it is a pivot point for traffic to and from Poland, that's why it was hit, who really knows.  The upshot is her team that can get out of Ukraine are now doing so.

Unfortunately, this means women only. Healthy men of tithing age are not allowed to leave. And Yuri (lead engineer) now believes that the plan in Ukraine is to basically draft all fighting age men into the army or security forces this Fall or Winter.

I do not know if this is good news or bad. For my partner and me it sucks, because Yuri is a damn good engineer and a great dude, but is it good or bad for Ukraine, and of course, Russia, maybe even Europe and the world? If women mostly leave and all fighting age men are drafted to fight, what happens to the country's fragile economy and is NATO/EU going to fund Ukaine's government - that will see tax receipts plummeting while seeing war costs escalate - while continuing to provide military aid?

Then again, if Ukraine's fighting force expands by I don't know 500k-1,000k  more fighters, could they overwhelm Russia and/or weaken its forces so much it has no choice but to retreat?

I'm sorry to hear that the war is impacting you personally.  And that your lead developer and others on your team may be conscripted.  Hopefully, as a talented software engineer, he can find a military job away from the front lines and stay safe until the war ends.  

I continue to think that money will not be much of an obstacle for Ukraine in the short- to medium-term because: (1) people are fighting to avoid being slaughtered, tortured, raped, etc, so they will be willing to live with a lot less money than they previously had; and (2) the West has a brobdingnagian incentive to fund this war since it's weakening a key adversary at very low cost in life and limb to those Western countries.