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?

@oakleaffy thank you. It does seem that everyone who says 'we can't stand by, send in NATO' etc etc forgets that it's going to be our boys and girls on the front line if he decides to go full on crazy and take Ukraine as a whole and/or another of the baltic states that neighbours the Ukraine.

Our military is woefully inadequate against Putin, our equipment would be smoked as soon as the Russians set eyes on it and sadly, because of the job my husband does he'd be directly on the front line.

So many friends and family keep saying 'oh you must be so worried, you must be a bag of nerves' well yes, but I'm enjoying having my husband here while I can, carrying on as normal, and hoping and praying that this doesn't escalate and he comes home to me and our unborn baby in 7 months time.

@yossell

I've started learning russian on Duolingo. Just in case I need to plead for my life to invading forces. Plus I'll be able to read war and peace in the original if there is no invasion. Win-win.

Now that's a practical approach 👍🏻

'The world really has turned upside down, because I agree with you jj!'

'Scaremongering threads like this are not helpful either.'

I know it is like history repeating itself. I really cannot believe yesterday should have been a day to look forward, be optimistic after 2 gruelling years and now Ukrainians have this to endure and we can all only look on and hope it doesn't escalate further.

Please don't stockpile bog roll mumsnetters.

Why does gas supply worry you? Less than 5% of our gas is from Russian sources, and we have a 9 month supply of our own for national emergencies so why on earth would you be worried?

It would take 5 SECONDS to Google that and find out that's not something to be worried about. Come on.

I don't know, I think the PM has been very lucky that this has come as a major distraction just at the time he needed it!

OP - if your friend is a Russian Tory donor, then yes she should move her money and assets out of the UK. Then again, she can probably carry on as before.

I've donated some money to the Red Cross appeal. And on a purely selfish note decided against the holiday on the Polish/Ukrainian border that we were thinking of this summer.

If nothing else Covid showed us how fragile our supply chains are, whatever the reason for a bit of additional pressure is.

I think the complete opposite.

If we hadn’t had a worldwide pandemic recently I’d probably be more worried.
But covid showed us that there was absolutely no need to panic buy and no one starved to death.

Yes there was less flour and toilet paper in some major stores but that was due to people panic buying but you could still get them.

I didn’t panic buy during covid and I never went without anything. I don’t know anyone who did.

Luckily I think if people do start panic buying they’ll start putting restrictions in quite quickly like having a max. amount of things, like they did with petrol and they’ll do with drawing cash out.

@DetailMouse

I don't know, I think the PM has been very lucky that this has come as a major distraction just at the time he needed it!

Just read that back to yourself OP, and give your head a wobble. FFS.

Not to be rude, your friend is an idiot. It’s peoples behaviour like that that cause problems, if everyone reacted like her we would have major problems. I would give her a stern talking to if I were you.

@NobodysGonnaKnow

You have, you've always got enough in to have "stocks" for any crisis. Some people here want you to believe that's selfish

I honestly think your anxiety is causing you confusion. Unless money is extremely tight most people will have food in their freezer and food in their cupboards. These people aren’t planning for WW3, they have gone shopping. The accusation of being selfish is the people I saw during covid stockpiling anything from hand gel to toilet rolls and sticking it in their garage this leaving the shelves bare for other ordinary folks trying to shop as normal.

The peepers board has people buying one extra can and one extra packet of pasta. Sounds okay doesn’t it? Until everyone does the same and then the shelves are bare. So if you want to help anyone at all then the key is to carry on as normal until such a time that we hear the bombs whistling overhead.

I am a sort of prepper. I have been for the last....bloody hell....50 years. I used to travel at sea with my husband and pretty much everybody on board kept a go bag packed. Stuff you'd be glad of in a lifeboat plus things like your wallet and cash, any meds you needed, anything like jewellery that you wouldn't want to lose.

Then we bought our first house in a beautiful area in the country that was prone to flooding and powercuts so the prep expanded to camping stoves and lights canned and packaged food that could be easily heated and water purification tablets. Then we moved again, the estate we moved to was new and powercuts happened just about every week so I kept up the prepper thing. Its not massive, I don't bury caches in the garden but I have got enough supplies for me and the dog and to share with neighbours.

We moved to the USA for a while and were in an area where winters were stormy. Evacuation shelters would be opened but the message was always "Don't bring your pets" so the prep there enlarged to enable us to sleep in the car rather than abandon the dogs.

Anyway my point is that anybody who panic buys or advises people to buy stuff at this stage in the game is a piss poor prepper. We don't need to buy extra at times of crisis and would be ashamed to panic buy because we have always got a stash.....not masses but enough for the household for a few days and enough to share. We don't have to rush to the bank because we have always got a (small) stash of cash in case bank or shop systems fail.

Similarly because I come from the generation where petrol stations weren't open 24/7 and closed on bank holidays and so on, while I can afford it, I will always keep fuel in the car, not in case of invasion but in case I need to drive somewhere immediately.

@NobodysGonnaKnow

Actually maybe the thing to do if you really want to do something is purchase some of those dehydrated food supplies that people take on mountain expeditions. At least those would fit in a bag abd have a huge amount of calories.

Kendal Mint Cake.

That's the spirit.

Russia took Crimea, there was war in Chechnya no one was freaking out this way over those were they? - Putin just wants to get Ukraine before they get accepted into NATO. It's a personal affront to him. I don't think for one minute he wants to go into Europe, he just doesn't want The West to 'get' what he sees as Russia's countries. It's awful for the people of Ukraine but going in isn't going to make it better IMO, it's just going to make things worse for more people over a longer time. He's not someone to push IMO and he will do whatever necessary to stop Ukraine joining NATO and becoming Western, I don't think we'll stop that without a long and horrible war unfortunately.

@RincewindsHat

Why does gas supply worry you? Less than 5% of our gas is from Russian sources, and we have a 9 month supply of our own for national emergencies so why on earth would you be worried?

It would take 5 SECONDS to Google that and find out that's not something to be worried about. Come on.

Did you read the article or spend 5 SECONDS Googling the headline?

Losing 5% of our supply would have a huge impact on price, which is already something of a crisis and most of our European neighbours rely on Russian Gas far more heavily, c. 50% for the EU as a whole, including France and Germany. Them needing an alternative supply will have a huge impact on us all and then there's the whole NATO thing.

So are going to try and stockpile gas? Where are you planning on keeping it?

There were big queues at our supermarket cash points yesterday, people were taking out cash so they had some at home in case Russia takes out our internet and the banking/cash point system goes down. I only wanted £20 to put in my nieces birthday card!

@NobodysGonnaKnow

So are going to try and stockpile gas? Where are you planning on keeping it?

Really? Yes , I thought I'd try buckets. I said I was worried about the gas supply and PP who has clearly only seen a headline told me I was wrong to be concerned. I will think about ways I can be less reliant on gas, but of course no gas also affects electricity supply.

I wish these posts would stop!!!!!!

I’m not prepped at all, I hope the gas in this country is limited, because that means we have taken steps against Russia. We can’t stand back and do nothing, innocent people are involved, more sanctions are needed.

I would never keep that much money in my house, but to have enough to go through a month if system collapses seems like a good idea.

I've been through five years of war as a child. I was 12 ehen it started, so videos from Ukraine feel surral to me, it was like returning 30 years back.

One thing I can say, war is like nothing you can imagine. Until you live through it, you do not know. And people, especially children adapt. And fast. I'd say children go through it much beter then adults, especially if they're with children of their own age.

Altough, it took me 25 years to stop being afraid of thunders, too much shell shocks as a child.

@MumGoneMild

Nothing other than a Red Cross donation

Absolutely dying at all the fellow Santander users who already keep cash ready for the next card crash.
I’ve learnt my lesson and I have £100 in the house ready for their bi weekly outage

@mum dreadful aren’t they, been caught once at a petrol station and once at the local Coop, I keep meaning to change banks, I have a business account for emergencies but I must crack on and change banks!

@SpinningTheSeedsOfLove

I think MNHQ needs to set up a Putin's Propaganda board on here, so all these threads can be shovelled in there where they belong, as a historical archive.

or a “hysterical” archive.

Thinking about your mortality on a daily basis is supposed to be good for you and lead you to enlightenment and happiness. Stoics and eastern philosophies practice this.

Embrace it and live in the moment, enjoy every day as if it’s your last. Life is fleeting and you never know what is around the corner. You can’t be prepared, it’s impossible.

My holiday was causing me stress, so I cancelled. I can enjoy the time with my family on U.K. soil

I thought MN was a place to come to discuss things that bother us? If the concerns are unfounded tell us why. Accusing people of being hysterical isn't helpful.

@SpinningTheSeedsOfLove

I think MNHQ needs to set up a Putin's Propaganda board on here, so all these threads can be shovelled in there where they belong, as a historical archive.

More like a hysterical archive.

Some of the threads on here this week are an absolute joke.