Belarus and the Ukrain Russia Conflict

[abella 13]

As Putin keeps escalating and things get worse I worry about how this may affect many of us in the near future. Although Belarus is not involved in the situation, he is a pro soviet president and lives in the past. He even calls his government police KGB. He is a strong Putin supporter and I'm sure that if a full war was to break out he would definitely involve Belarus.

On the other hand all the rest here that have Russian or Ukrainian fiances are probably worried sick and watch the news constantly. How are the rest of you dealing with the situation in E Europe? Any plans to travel to that part of the world soon. I was in Kiev in February at the very beginning of the conflict and was down by the center of it all in Maidan Square.

Well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best. Hopping this all ends soon and it ends well for all of us.

[VFittipaldi 30]

My fiance lives in Ukraine but all the way in the West, so is pretty much all of my family except my immediate family. I was born and raised in Ukraine, to me it is really a great deal of pain and heartache but it is nothing compared to the people who live there. I was just there 3 month ago and spent 1 month there. Things are relativity calm but people are scared to death. What will happen, how it will happen, what is the future of out kids, those are the conversations you hear everywhere you go. Now my fiance says more and more young kids are coming home in coffins, their lives were taken in the war. Part 3 of the military draft has begun so now they are drafting 50,000 people and many of them guys who i know and sadly one of them is my cousin who has a 4 year old boy and a baby on the way. It is awful and unfair what they are doing to Ukraine.

I hope we can all be with our loved once soon, I hope everyone's families and loved once here will be safe and arrive to the US safe and sound!

[Texasav8r 183]

I curse TSC every day basically. I want to hurry up and get Tanya out of Russia just in case this conflict escalates and the borders close to the west.

I think Ukraine will be fine but Russia may seal up tight if it gets much worse with sanctions (especially if the EU hops on board which they won't) and military aid to UA.

I am not really worrying myself sick over it and Tanya is much more calm about it than me. Perhaps she knows more than I do about it

I agree that BY would probably back RU if that were the case. We just need to hope for the best.

[TheFoxxy 76]

This is definitely a source of concern for anyone with relations to a loved one in that part of the world. Diana will be here on Thursday and I am praying to god that there wont be anymore incidents between now and then..

I must image how difficult it would be if you are still waiting for an NOA2.. But again I would try not to lose any sleep over it. I do not see there being a full fledged war but tensions are definitely high right now. Russia would be very stupid to isolate themselves from the world for a second time. Their economy is already teetering around a financial collapse.

I do not know about you guys or your fiance/ees but mine and her friends are not super Putin supporters and it seems most of Russia likes him but wouldn't support a war over what is happening in Ukraine. I think a lot of them are pretty indifferent about the whole Ukraine situation.

[Dave-n-Oksana 49]

Though Oksana and Valeriia have been here for over 4 years, we are still worried as Oksana's Mother and Sister live only an hour away from Mariupal. We're not too worried about her sister as her husband is a Turkish citizen so they have a bolt hole there, but in the long term we are looking at options to get her Mother here permanently or at least until the tensions die down.

This entire stupidity is hitting us too close to home as Valeriia learned that a friend of her's was killed last week in Donetsk when he went to the market, so this has definately cranked the tension high at home.

Our thoughts are definately with everyone affected by these events. Hopefully sanity will get a foothold soon.

[abella 13]

This is definitely a source of concern for anyone with relations to a loved one in that part of the world. Diana will be here on Thursday and I am praying to god that there wont be anymore incidents between now and then..

I must image how difficult it would be if you are still waiting for an NOA2.. But again I would try not to lose any sleep over it. I do not see there being a full fledged war but tensions are definitely high right now. Russia would be very stupid to isolate themselves from the world for a second time. Their economy is already teetering around a financial collapse.

I do not know about you guys or your fiance/ees but mine and her friends are not super Putin supporters and it seems most of Russia likes him but wouldn't support a war over what is happening in Ukraine. I think a lot of them are pretty indifferent about the whole Ukraine situation.

Funny, my fiance's name is Diana too. We are worried and as the previous poster said, yes Belarus is a Russia supporter. In fact they are not fans of the US at all. They all but kicked out the US diplomats out of their country. It is not a friendly place for Americans. But, let's hope all will be fine til then.....

[sunchaser 0]

Do not give up. we got NOA-1 on Feb 18th and on Aug 8th got the NOA-2 , I called my Senator when we went over 5 months and they called the TSC and told them he was interested in our Visa and wanted to check on the progress.. one week later we got approved.

I was in Dnepropetrvsk 3 weeks ago and in Kiev also, things there are fine and all normal. we have been worried since Dnepropetrovsk is only 120 miles from Dontesk. and all the fighting. if you are over 5 months waiting on TSC, call your senator they have people that handle these kind of things.. it helped us..

soon Lena will be here in TN. WOOHOO

Good luck

Tim and Lena

[abella 13]

Do not give up. we got NOA-1 on Feb 18th and on Aug 8th got the NOA-2 , I called my Senator when we went over 5 months and they called the TSC and told them he was interested in our Visa and wanted to check on the progress.. one week later we got approved.

I was in Dnepropetrvsk 3 weeks ago and in Kiev also, things there are fine and all normal. we have been worried since Dnepropetrovsk is only 120 miles from Dontesk. and all the fighting. if you are over 5 months waiting on TSC, call your senator they have people that handle these kind of things.. it helped us..

soon Lena will be here in TN. WOOHOO

Good luck

Tim and Lena

Well, my case is also moving along. Not NOA2 but am RFE. I know why as I neglected to include a divorce decree from my first marriage. After I send what they need it should be a couple of weeks give or take for the NOA2

I hope!

[Dashinka 24,508]

I am a bit worried about this as well. My fiancé Katya is scheduled to come over in the next few weeks. One thing we did was to route her flights through Beijing, which was more for convenience than for anything else. We wanted her POE to be Detroit so she didn't have to clear customs and still need to find her way to another flight particularly at JFK. However, now I a happy we did it this way just in case there are any issues with commercial flights from Russia through Western Europe.

Good luck to everyone.