Blog Day 675 - Sunday 13 February 2022 - Day 106 of Covid Nearly Normal

Warning Warning Warning - Interesting History Stuff Following 

The situation in Ukraine is getting more serious from day to day with more Russian forces massing on the borders plus a Russian naval fleet "exercising" in the Black Sea.

The Western governments, including Australia, are evacuating their embassies and strongly recommending that their citizens get out of Ukraine.

Due to the historical Russian/USSR relationship with the Ukraine the Russians hate the idea of Ukraine moving away from the Russian sphere of influence and moving towards a relationship with Western Europe and possibly membership of NATO.  The eastern part of Ukraine is strongly pro Russian but the rest wants to be part of Western Europe.  

The history of this part of Eastern Europe is far too complex to go into here but it is extremely interesting and terrifying.  Stalin in particular treated Ukraine abysmally with millions of Ukrainians dying of hunger during the famines of the 1930's and millions more transported and disappearing to Siberia and other internal zones of the old USSR.

Ukraine only achieved it's independence from Russia/USSR after the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990's but Putin would rather that it still be a vassal state of Russia.

The Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians are looking very nervously at what is happening in Ukraine.  If the Russians are successful in exerting their influence over Ukraine these countries are concerned that they will be next on the Russian radar.

Given Poland's close relationship with Ukraine including a common border and their previous difficult relationship with Russia I am sure that they will be keeping a close eye on events in Ukraine.  A large part of Ukraine used to be part of Poland.  The borders in these parts are very fluid and often depend on who won the most recent war.

After both TGW and WW2 both Russia or the USSR, as it was then, and Poland undertook what can only be described as ethnic cleansing with huge populations of both countries, including Ukraine, forcibly moving ethnic groups from country to country and involving many deaths and much loss of property. No wonder there is no love lost between these countries and regions. 

On my most recent trip to Europe in the distant past of 2019 I visited Przemysl, a town in Poland, that is very close to the Ukraine border.  On a guided tour of some TGW battlefields and forts around Przemysl we were standing on a small hill overlooking the Polish Ukranian border which was marked by some coloured posts and a wire fence.  After standing there for a few minutes my guide suggested we move on as the border guards and police get a bit nervous if people hang around there for too long.  It is a very sensitive area.

To demonstrate the fluidity of these borders my driver for the day from Przemysl told me that his grandfather had lived in the same house all of his life but had lived in four different countries.  Over the years this house had been in the Austro - Hungarian empire, Poland, USSR and Ukraine.

The big question is, will Russia invade Ukraine or is it all just sabre rattling on Putin's part?

Luckily the Free World has Sleepy Joe leading the charge against the Russians, that is after he has a nap and puts his carpet slippers on and finds out where Ukraine is and doesn't mistake it for Uganda.  (Remember he got a bit confused about the difference between Libya and Syria 😀)

Austro-Hungarian TGW Fort - Przemysl Poland (from the author's own collection)

Polish Ukraine Border near Przemysl Poland (from the author's own collection)

Not much to report on the Covid front today, daily new infection numbers are continuing to decline, numbers of active infections are continuing to decline and covid related hospitalisations are also declining.  However I make the usual caveats about the weekend figures and how they tend to understate the numbers due to lack of testing and reporting.

Hopefully given the continuing decline in daily infections the death numbers will start to set a pattern of reducing numbers.  Australia wide death numbers are ranging with 67 reported one day and 45 the next, the state death figures are also fluctuating day to day.  Victoria reported 18 deaths in the last 24 hours with 19 the day before and 13 the day before that.

Current figures as per the following tables:

        Corona Virus Daily Stats – 13 February 2021 – Day 106 of Covid Nearly Normal

Date	Aus Infected	Aus Increase	Aus 1st Dose Vacc	Vic Infected	Vic Increase	NSW Increase	*Aus Active Infection	NSW Active Infection	Vic Active Infection	Aus 2nd Dose Vacc
01/02					11,311	12,818
02/02	2,614,706	38,379	94.9%	877,553	14,553	11,807	293,675	129,942	73,886	92.4%
03/02					12,157	12,632
04/02	2,668,333	22,508	95.0%	900,950	11,240	10,698	253,603	102,847	65,968	92.6%
05/02					7,810	8,389
06/02	2,727,303	21,602	95.1%	915,929	7,169	7,893	227,841	89,861	60,917	92.7%
07/02					8,275	7,437
08/02	2,777,432	25,254	95.1%	933,989	9,785	9,690	205,543	76,465	58,449	92.8%
09/02					9,908	10,312
10/02					9,391	10,130
11/02	2,850,969	25,445	95.8%	961,889	8,521	8,950	185,163	64,813	55,617	93.8%
12/02					7,224	8,183
13/02	2,897,089	22,049	95.9%	976,256	7,223	6,686	176,646	58,741	54,494	93.9%
14/02

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – 13 February 2022 – Day 106 of Covid Nearly Normal
Date	Aus New Infection	Aus Hospital	Aus ICU	Aus Ventilate	Vic New Infection	Vic Hospital	Vic ICU	Vic Ventilate	AUS Daily Deaths	Vic Daily Deaths
01/02										34
02/02	38,379	4,670	348	130	14,553	768	99	31	69	25
03/02									85	34
04/02	22,508	4,465	314	133	11,240	707	79	29	67	36
05/02					7,810				83	41
06/02	21,602	4,139	291	122	7,169	652	73	28	44	6
07/02									46	7
08/02	25,254	3,803	271	97	9,785	575	72	30	51	20
09/02									63	21
10/02									65	16
11/02	25,445	3,348	261	77	8,521	553	82	23	48	13
12/02									67	19
13/02	22,049	3,018	224	87	7,223	465	62	17	45	18
14/02