It’s hard to believe, but this month will be the one year mark of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  I originally wrote and shared this in June 2022 with some people who didn’t know a lot about the history and context and wanted to learn more about what was happening and why.  There are still people who are interested in learning more, this post is for them.  Looking back, most of this writing is holding up but not 100%.  I have not gone back to update this based on current events.  I have made edits to a section to remove some personally identifying info, otherwise what I wrote is unedited for 2023.