Mr. Shiyan Lu: I've been living in Kiev for one year.
I'm doing fine here.
I've been in Kiev for over a year.
After I came out of Europe,
I had no other place to go because of the pandemic.
I was able to come here visa-free, so I did.
I've been here for over a year now.
So let's start with this war.
Since DAY 1 of the war, I've always had access to the Internet,
hot water, cold water, heating, gas, and electricity. EVERYTHING.
Every morning I go to the supermarket to buy groceries.
Food and daily necessities are still readily available in supermarkets.
There is no more cooked food in supermarkets,
but there are still freshly made cakes and bread.
There is no mass panic buying,
unlike in China where two people can fight over a bag of rice, pulling each other's hair.
In Ukraine, people still go shopping as usual.
But restaurants and entertainment venues are all closed.
We still have water, electricity, coal, the Internet... EVERYTHING.
Have you ever lost Internet connection?
The Internet has always been good, very smooth, very fast.
I'm living in a hotel room right now.
That's wonderful to hear!
I've been organizing donations in the past two days. I've donated over US$2,000.
I can tell you. There is no need.
You don't need to donate anything.
It's really not necessary.
There have been countless donations from around the world,
from the east and the west, from the old and the young.
You wanna know how much money has been donated to Ukraine?
The accounting system in Ukraine is about to collapse. It's that crazy.
Can you believe it? The bookkeepers are working flat out.
There is so much money that they can't hire enough bookkeepers to count it.
There is money donated from Japan, from Korea, from Singapore, etc.
Any normal country. You name it.
They are all donating money to Ukraine.
Everyday supplies, personnel, volunteers, technology, equipment, weapons...
are steadily pouring into Ukraine across EU borders.
So Ukraine is getting stronger and stronger.
Because the whole world has got Ukraine's back.
Ukraine is gaining more and more strength.
As for Russia, things are quite the opposite.
During the first three rounds, Russia struck very hard,
and then lost energy quickly.
It has now lost speed and strength.
It is now breathing heavily, its footsteps chaotic and its energy increasingly drained.
But Ukraine is getting stronger and stronger.
The longer Ukraine fights, the more money it gets. Why?
The whole world is donating money. The whole world!
Against Ukraine, there can be no victory.
Let's compare this to a videogame, say, World of Warcraft.
You have five minutes to defeat me.
If you can't,
then after the first five minutes, I'm going to strike back.
I have unlimited resources at my disposal. Then it's game over for you.
There are so many people on all kinds of social media platforms donating to Ukraine.
I feel that the most important thing in this war is the will of the people.
Without a lightning war, Russia could never take over Ukraine.
A protracted war just won't do.
Unlike the Chinese, the Russians have access to YouTube and Facebook.
They know that the whole world is on Ukraine's side.
The Russian soldiers are just following orders. They don't really want to fight.
If Russia can't take Ukraine within a few days, it never will.
Russia doesn't have the people's support right now.
That's right. Ukraine is not alone in this war.
The whole world is helping Ukraine fight against Russia.
There were explosions during the first few nights, especially on the second night.
And then there were gunshots.
If you can hear gunshots, that means the war is happening not far away.
Otherwise you would only hear explosions.
Audible gunshots mean that the shooting is 3 to 5 kilometers away.
I live in an urban area in Kiev.
That means that the shooting happened within 3 to 5 kilometers of Kiev city.
Also, the gunshots were getting louder and louder.
That means the war was getting closer.
In the end, it could be less than a kilometer away.
Last night was the third night.
The gunshots became infrequent.
Tonight, there are no explosions or gunshots.
It's quite obvious now that after Round 3, Russia has no more strength.
The soldiers are tired and poorly maintained.
Russian weapons are bulky and lumbering.
As far as we know, corruption in the Russian army is severe,
making long-term military logistics support impossible.
Today has been very quiet.
It's been quiet NOT because it is weekend and everyone is chilling at home, watching TV and eating snacks.
It's because Russia is exhausted.
Good news on the Ukrainian side is frequent. Why?
Because the EU is right to the west of Ukraine.
There's a steady stream of resources coming in every day from Romania, Poland, and Slovakia.
Ukraine is unbeatable for it has unlimited resources to rely on.
Reminds me of the story of the Spring and Autumn Period,
"Morale is at its peak after the first drumming, but dwindles after the second, and dies after the third."
Russian military morale is long gone. Putin won't be able to take over Ukraine now.
I want to emphasize the role of the Internet.
A YouTuber I follow has talked about this crisis.
He points out that this is probably the first time in history a war is livestreamed.
Thanks to the Internet, people all over the world know what is happening in Ukraine,
how the war is progressing,
and are able to donate to Ukraine.
People are able to put pressure on their own government to help Ukraine.
The Internet has brought people all over the world together, and they are united on the Ukrainian side.
I have received countless calls from all over the world,
from Czechs, Americans, Germans, asking me how I'm doing.
The whole world is watching. The whole world is standing with Ukraine.
Russian soldiers can see these things too, right?
They know what's going on, right?
I was chatting with a friend of mine yesterday.
I said, "Wars are no longer what they used to be."
The sentiment of the people is very important.
In the past, the Mongolian army swept across Eurasia,
and couldn't care less what the world thought of them.
Today we live in the age of information technology.
If Putin wasn't able to take over Ukraine in one strike, he never will be.
The Russians know how the world sees this war.
If a blitzkrieg doesn't work, they'll lose their morale.
If there were no Internet,
Ukraine would be fighting this war alone right now,
no one would have known what was going on, and no one would have cared.
No one would have donated money or pressured their own government to help Ukraine.
Then Ukraine would've been crushed like a soda can.
Putin has threatened nuclear war. Do you think a nuclear war will happen?
If there were no Internet, even if he were to push that button, nobody would know.
But thanks to the Internet, 7 billion people around the world are looking at him.
Will he be able to press that button and destroy humanity when the whole world is watching?
I believe that Putin threatens the use of nukes because he feels that he is losing,
and that nukes are his bargaining chip in negotiations,
so he won't lose face even if he loses the war.
It's a show of strength. "I can still win. See? I have nukes."
Putin probably wants Ukraine to put on the facade of a loser even if Ukraine wins.
All Putin wants is to use nukes as a bargaining chip and look like a winner.
I believe a dictator needs something like that.
Putin needs to show strength both domestically and internationally.
He needs to look like a winner.
Whether he loses or wins, he can't lose face.
I fully understand what you're saying, and I quite agree with you.
First of all, Putin is no fool.
I think his IQ is 140 or even 150.
If he were a lunatic, he wouldn't have been able to hold office for 20 years
as President of the Russian Federation.
A moron or a lunatic would've been long destroyed by his enemies.
The fact that he's been there for 20 years shows that he's a super smart guy, doesn't it?
Will such a smart guy go against the bottom line of human ethics when everyone's watching? I guess not.
Thank you so much for sharing such valuable information.
Everyone will be very excited to hear this.