Pro-Russian rebel fighters at a house where they live near a front-line position in Horlivka, Ukraine. The house had belonged to a regional prosecutor who fled. Credit Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

New York Times: Ukraine Rebels Upbeat After an Infusion of Aid

WNU Editor: When I was visiting Ukraine two years ago, the last thing on my mind (and on this I can also speak for everyone else) was the possibility of war. The focus at that time (as it has always been) was .... getting a job, dating that pretty girl, griping about corruption in the government, high taxes, saving some money for a vacation or a new car, going to university, taking care of parents and grandparents. This is why the news on Ukraine has been depressing to me on every level .... for I know the people who are on both sides .... I know who and what they are .... I know their history .... I know what motivates them .... I know what angers them and makes them happy .... and I know why this war is occurring today. As to this New York Times report, it is revealing on a number of levels .... we have a school secretary who has lost hope in the Ukraine government and is now a sniper, a man who was a nobody a year ago and now leads a platoon of soldiers .... citizen soldiers who are fighting without even knowing what may come out of it when the war is over .... but they are fighting and killing their own countrymen just the same.

As to the rebels feeling upbeat after an infusion of Russian aid .... that is probably the case. But this war is very fluid, and one thing that I have learned about war is that today you may be victorious and on top of the world .... but tomorrow you may be defeated and very dead.