Who remembers COVID 19? Strange how cataclysmic events can crowd out others which, only weeks ago, seemed to be all-embracing. Now the plight of the Ukrainians fills the media and our thoughts.
The problems which this crisis has thrown up stretch much wider. Our young Russian friend in Moscow wrote yesterday, desperately worried about her family. Her English husband is awaiting a new passport which will enable them to leave the country. His compatriots where he works have already left. Our worries about climate change have been overtaken by the energy crisis; in Russia, she tells me, commodity prices have doubled.
There has been a Ukrainian camp by the canal at Weston on Trent for as long as I can remember. I cycled past it many times when we lived in Melbourne. Now a quiet facility has suddenly become centre stage. Tomorrow our friends, Tim and Jo, will be there, helping to sort and pack supplies for a van leaving for Ukraine. The sight of so much suffering in a European country has had one good effect; it reminds us of what really matters, and how much we have to be thankful for.
Putin is portraying Russian as a victim, just as Hitler did Germany, though Germany did have some genuine grievances. Surely, in this interconnected world, that lie cannot be long maintained.