Are you taking any steps because of the Ukraine situation?

[DetailMouse]

The situation for those in the country is heartbreaking, I've sobbed at several news stories this morning and my heart aches for a Ukrainian friend whose family is still there.

On a far more selfish, practical level have you "done" anything to protect yourself and your own situation? If nothing else I can see an impending deepening of the financial crisis. A friend has taken all her money out of the bank, for example, but it's true she's prone to a bit of drama. Gas supply worries me a lot.

Is there anything we should be doing now to help a bit if the situation is prolonged or worsens?

I'm a bit of a prepper as in I always have a food cupboard with a wide range of tinned food and a freezer full too. I do that anyway.

The only thing I'm doing slightly differently is making sure I don't get low on petrol and limiting the car journeys I do by cycling when possible rather than driving. To be honest I've been doing that a while but I'm doing it a bit more consciously now.

We're also using our wood burner to heat the lounge rather than turning up the central heating, but that's because of the recent gas increase that happened anyway.

I'm following the news but trying not to overdo it or get caught up in hysterics. I have family in Hungary. Obviously not in immediate danger but Hungary and Russia have a very tense relationship at the best of times. If they need to get away either now or any point in the future I will try and be prepared to help them in any way I can.

Tbh when everyone was ranting about nuclear war yesterday, I thought Putin was referring to a cyber attack. I don't think there will be a run on the banks. We're not living in It's A Wonderful Life but we may lose access to online banking or banking systems for a little while so it's probably prudent to have some cash at home for buying essentials until any cyber attack is shut down.

Nothing, I'm not sure big shops could remain open if there was a cyber attack, even if you had cash most of their systems will rely on technology which could be taken out. Anything more serious having some dry pasta and £50 in cash isn't going to help! Maybe I should be digging a bunker in the garden rather than wasting time on mumsnet...

As Jones from dad's army said "Don't panic, don't panic!!!"

In a few years time we could be completely cashless so drawing out money wouldn't be an option then. This crisis shows how important it is to keep our cash.

No just following the news. I have no money spare and I can’t afford to withdraw money out for safe keeping, or keep my car full of petrol.

@FAQs

The only thing I am doing is taking £50 out in case Santander goes down (again) but that has happened 3 times recently so if anything is likely to happen the Cyber threat seems the most realistic, even then I’m sure it’ll get resolved quickly. Otherwise no, I’ve not used cash for years!

Yes, I was thinking similar. I don't usually have cash around so might take out a small amount just in case .

Are you taking any steps because of the Ukraine situation?

Yes, I’ve donated some money to Red Cross campaign and Ukrainian journalists.

If she’s telling you that she’s taken money out of the bank, who else is she telling? She’s making herself a target for robbery and that is a far more realistic threat than a banking collapse. I’d be very concerned for her.

I agree.
She seems very unwell and vulnerable.

There was a thread yesterday about a poster finding money wrapped in a blanket. I hope this wasn’t your friends 😂

Seriously though if for any reason the banks do get hit there will be measures put in place - do you think the entire country will starve to death whilst she merrily strolls through Asda filling her trolley.
Where does she think the workers will come from if they can’t get paid? Or products delivered to the store with no money to pay drivers or petrol?

More likely if banks are hit there will be a pause on rent and mortgage payments etc which will be owed once things are back up and running again. And everyone will have an allowance for things like food so no one goes without but also no one tries to stock pile.

There are online hackers who are for peace and have said they’ll hack Russia’s cyberspace.
If banks were to be hit people like this will get them back up and running in a few hours anyway.

I still have my Brexit stash of toilet paper and pasta 😂
But I always keep around 1-2k in cash in the house for emergencies

@DetailMouse

I'm concerned that of there is a crisis here, prices will rocket and what we think of as enough cash for a week or two will be nothing of the sort.

then you'll have bigger problems than whether it might take a while to get to your savings.

safest place for your money is in the bank (assuming you don't go over the protected amount)

Although...will it be one of those things where if everyone takes out £100 cash that will have some destabilising effect on the banks (financial equivalent of everyone buying one extra pack of pasta)?

I have absolutely no idea.

My wages (small from very part time job) have just gone into my account. I will take that out, it will be enough for 2 weeks shopping plus dinner money for GS.

@HalfTermHell if there is a cyber attack on the shops they will still want to get rid of stock so I think cash could be useful. I was in a big supermarket a few years ago when there system went down, they were letting everyone go by agreeing how much was in your trolley. They's ask how much your normal shop was, look in the trolley I suppose to see if you'd slipped in half a dozen bottles of brandy, and then agreed a figure with your. I think it was about 10 or 20% off the figure you gave for your normal shop. I suppose people with a small basket just paid for what they had but I had a full trolley. They won't want fresh stuff to just sit there and rot. Of course if it wasn't sorted within days it would be different but initially I think cash would be useful.

Plenty of high worth individuals are moving money between international accounts. Multinationals are making sure everyone's passports are up to date etc. It's not true to say people aren't doing anything in response to the Ukrainian crisis. The average person might not be but it doesn't mean no one is.

Oh god threads like these should be deleted. Just going to cause hysteria more than anything.

I'm stopping using the car.

I saw a Ukrainian MP, Oleksii Goncharenko, on Sky News yesterday, speaking very eloquently about what they want from the West. He wanted an immediate halt to the purchase of Russian oil and gas. "Every barrel," he said, "will contain Ukrainian blood."

I would like it if the West would do just that (among other things) but I can't control that. I can control what I buy though. If everyone did the same (acknowledging that not everyone can) demand would drop enough for it to become feasible at the collective level. (I don't use gas anyway, so I can't make a difference there unfortunately.)

This is the interview, if anyone's interested: news.sky.com/video/ukraine-mp-putin-is-a-hitler-12550390

What is happening in Ukraine is appalling and it won't end there until Putin is stopped. The West should have intervened after the annexation of Crimea, but they need to do more now, and fast. Oil and gas, yes, and I am disappointed that the EU have failed to agree on excluding Russia from the Swift system. I think it's only a matter of time before NATO has to mobilise troops at this rate and it would better to act more decisively now and avert that imo.

Fuck me what is wrong with people?? It's like Y2K all over again.

@AllOfUsAreDead

Oh god threads like these should be deleted. Just going to cause hysteria more than anything.

This is just the start. It's going to get a whole lot worse on here.

So we’ve accepted there’s nothing we can do to protect ourselves from war. So we just carry on as usual.

The only thing to do is to take any reasonable steps to ensure a back up for any key outage in essentials, which you should do in any case.

E.g. Money - some cash, different bank accounts. Food - a few extra days of store cupboard supplies. Drinking water - a few gallons. Charged batteries and torches.

That covers a whole wealth of emergencies, from when the local water supply went to pot and tap water came out brown, to a fraud alert blocking my bank card.

Taking all her money out of the bank.🙄 I'd be crapping myself about being robbed, flooded or having a fire and losing the lot. Talk about making yourself a target for criminals. Pretty sure your house insurance would only cover a minimal amount so you'd be buggered. Nowt as Queen as folk.

I am busy taking precautions as per the 1980s Protect and Survive leaflet.

You can find it on line if you are interested.

@Sparklingbrook I know

@ToMockAKillingBird

Prudent to keep some cash handy. We try to keep around £500 at home for emergencies. We have a good supply of food and hygiene essentials, plus things like candles, batteries for torches etc. Scan any important documents - passports, insurance, house deeds etc and save on phone and ipad.

Realistically there's not much else one can do, apart from hope and pray that this ends soon.

Well, that will be a gift when they hack your accounts won’t it.

@ancientgran that's a good point, although like someone else pointed out if things got that bad there'd be looting and probably not much left for you standing nicely in a line with your £50 cash! My only worry really is for those on very low incomes that are already living on the breadline and the price of basic things (food, fuel) going up even more.

Napoleon solo

The figure bandied about was 700 million dollars a DAY going to Moscow from USA And EU for oil!!
A day!!!

It's a shame NATO might have to get humans ready to fight and possibly die if the EU can't stop Russia using swift??
Doesn't seem right?
What's the problem?