Things are very bad in Ukraine right now. Hope any duders in that part of the world are able to stay safe.

I'm pretty scared right now, and I live in the continental US, thousands of miles away from where this is all happening. Things are looking really bad right now and they could escalate quickly.

I know we keep politics off these boards for good reason but I just hope all the duders (and non-duders) in that part of the world stay as safe as possible given what is happening. And I really hope that this does not ignite something much bigger and uglier.

Honestly video games are feeling pretty unimportant to me at the moment, though I hope they serve as a good distraction for people in these dark times.

@bigsocrates: Agreed, well wishes to any in danger and to those feeling uneasy as well.

I feel like it has pretty much started now. I still hope for the best though. Honestly, I feel like "stay safe" just doesn't cut it anymore. One of my coworkers is Ukrainian and I can't imagine how she is feeling. I also know some Russians from when I was on exchange and hope for the best for their sake as well. Thank you for starting this thread and, well, stay safe duders.

Yeah... it's definitely bad. Putin is doing the same thing to Eastern Ukraine as Crimea. Slowly pressure the area with troops until they succeed in annexing the area and hope NATO doesn't budge. Best case scenario is a last minute diplomatic solution happens in the upcoming days. Worst case is something I don't want to even think about.

With that said, no one wants to go to war, not Russia, China or anyone else. It's like playing Mario Party, there are no winners.

It's very scary. I hope everyone is safe.

Ukraine and Belarus have some of the friendliest people I've met anywhere in Europe. It's absolutely awful to see what the people in both countries have to suffer from, especially when the entirety of Belarus and parts of Ukraine are closer to where I live than the furthest parts of my own country. Even though I've met people in both countries who are nostalgic for the days of the USSR, it's clear that Ukraine and Belarus have distinct identities and cultures and deserve the right to exist peacefully as independent nations.

All I can hope for is minimal suffering to civilians in both countries and for cooler heads to somehow prevail.

Russians in and outside of Russia should not be blamed for the actions of the Russian government. I like Russians and Russian culture and will hopefully get to travel in Russia again in the future when and if the war subsides.

In my area we have a very few Ukraine community memebers. Mostly aside people come from China, Jamaica, El Salvador, Lithuania, Sierra Leone, Trinidad, Belarus, the Dominican Republic - not in that order, I think the most are Carribian followed by Eastern European.

When you are talking about 12K -17K year round residents, a few families moving shifts the demographics a lot.

Oh no, this is awful and I feel so sorry for the innocents in Ukraine.

Hi! So I’m here from Ukraine and I have nothing of importance to say or anything like that.

Situation is looking pretty grim, but we try to keep calm.

Thanks for the post, it’s nice to see that people care

And thanks to Giantbomb and giantbomb community in general, this place provided much needed moral support again and again over the years. So thanks to everybody here

@gornogorno: Hope the best for you. Ukraine is a beautiful country with good people in it. We need to make this a very costly move for Putin & his circle. I'm actually quite happy that the EU sanctions seem to be focused on hurting these people, instead of more generic measures that directly target the country at large. We don't want to create an easy Russian people vs the west narrative for Putin.

@gornogorno: Stay safe! Hopefully, this all defuses quickly. <3

@gornogorno: All the best to you. Please stay safe!

@gornogorno: Hope it doesn't get any worse, and things turn around. I've always wanted to visit Ukraine to experience the people and architecture.

Well shit. "Special Military Operation" does not sound good at all. @gornogorno I don't know what I can really say to you. But please be cautious and have an exit strategy if things deteriorate.

It's very scary. I hope everyone is safe.

@gornogorno: Don't know what to say, except that I hope that you and those around you are okay.

HI! Thanks to everyone for support

I think we ready, both our country as a whole and also me and people I know.

If anybody here has any influence on that sort of stuff maybe think about organizing a meeting to show support and or donate to the appropriate foundations. Hope that’s not too out of the line

@gornogorno: I hope you and your family are safe. If you need help seeking asylum in the EU, please PM me.

@gornogorno: Not out of line at all, and I'll look for organizations to help out. Thanks for speaking on it!

What are the best places to donate to?

@wollywoo: Unicef and the Red Cross are always safe bets. There a lot of Ukraine specific charities and donation pools popping up, but it's really difficult to parse which of these is legitimate and which is not.

Yes Unicef and Red Cross are great. Thank you

Also SaveLife.in.ua

I feel like need to warn you that SaveLife support our Army directly, so it may not be apropriate for everybody. But that's what we need the most today

I am praying for people in Ukraine and really all of Eastern Europe. Ukraine is neither the end nor the begging of what that reigon will be going through in the next few decades. I hope in the coming years, we people living in United States and around teh world will find path to "our better selves". That other natiosn who think they are "beacon of democracys" become so in relaity not just name.

We humans could have a much better society world-wide; if we would just stop being so greedy, distrustful, and stupid. The Unites States has a lot of "work to do" on istelf - no doubts about that. However, I hope we can do the right thing and support freedoms abroad, while we do that work cleaning up our own injustices.

Stay safe. Hope for the best.

Ukraine is putting up a tremendous fight at least. By all accounts, Putin is caught off guard because he thought he would have it done by now, yet they haven't even captured one city 2 days later.

Just donated to Unicef. Slava Ukraini.

Since some people were wondering, here is an article by an Ukrainian on how you can help: https://kyivindependent.com/opinion/victor-tregubov-are-you-a-foreigner-who-wants-to-help-ukraine-heres-how/