Hello @eythorphoto, and nice to "see" you again!
I know in Denmark they also lifted all the Covid restrictions on 1. february and immediately there were record infections... and very few people in the hospitals requiring critical attention. The national health institute declared that Covid-19 "no longer represented a critical health threat" and people went back to normal life. They got ill, and then they got well again.
I've have two rounds of Covid, one near the beginning and one in September last year. The first one was nasty, the second one was 72 hours and finished, and I think I have enough natural immunity now that I am not too worried.
The Ukraine situation worries me very much for the civilians in Ukraine, but as you say it's a proud people and they are tough as nails... and I think the Russians are learning what it is like to be up against a nation that has everything to lose... their freedom and existence.
Let us not forget that the last time "Russia" (the the USSR) tried something like this they took on an ill equipped but stubborn army of Afghanistan, thinking they could just walk in and take over... and 9 years later, the Russians withdrew with their economy in shambles and the USSR dissolved as a result... and Afghanistan continued to be Afghanistan.