Like many of you, my wife and I have been watching the unfolding events happening in Ukraine that have overtaken the news pages in recent days. For most folks, Ukraine is hardly a place they would know much about or have all that much interest in knowing much about.

My interest in Ukraine is a bit more personal. Aside from visiting the country a number of times myself, my wife is Ukrainian. From the separatist region of Lugansk, no less. Her father still lives in Lugansk as do many of her lifetime friends.

So, we've been living with the conflicts there since the so-called Revolution of Dignity burst on the scene in 2014. It really amounted to just another round of ruining the average person's life.

What a mess.

Revolutions rarely do much good. They do tend to make the average person's tenuous existence even more tenuous. That is Ukraine after a couple of revolutions since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The 2014 blow up resulted in my wife's son fleeing to Russia as both sides of the revolt were chasing down young men to thrust a gun in their hand and told to point it at their newly-created enemies - their fellow citizens.

Friends died and survivors tried to put lives back together again; others simply left the separatist area for what they hoped would be a better life elsewhere in Russia, Ukraine or Europe.

What a mess. 

So after eight years since this great Revolution of Dignity we see it has not brought much dignity but it has brought an abundance of ruin, and it brings us to today.

What a mess.

You see the faces of young Russian men who are sent to kill their young Ukrainian adversaries. Both likely have relatives and even friends from the other's country.

What a mess.

To the West, Ukraine is just a pawn to tweak Russia with, whereas to Putin it is much more. To both it is a geopolitical game. To the average Ukrainian it's another dose of despair and wondering what tomorrow will look like.

What a mess.