Displaying items by tag: Russia

The Russian Orthodox Church is echoing Putin to justify the war. Its stance is driving many Ukrainian priests and parishioners to reject its teaching and join the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Father Nicolay Pluzhnik said, ‘When the war started, I waited to hear from Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the “father” of our church.’ There was no reaction, and then Patriarch Kirill and most of Moscow’s priests gave blessings to the war. They failed to condemn killing innocent Ukrainians or call for a ceasefire. Instead, they held large, televised services in Moscow to bless Russian troops, with sermons proposing the Kremlin's war is a righteous war about the future of Christianity. Patriarch Kirill said, ‘What is happening today is much more important than politics. It’s about human salvation.’ Dr Rowan Williams said, ‘There are elements in the Russian Christian tradition that become toxic when they follow Christian nationalism. It’s a messianic approach to Russia’s fate.’

Much of the focus of the war in Ukraine has been about the battle on the ground - but the fight to dominate the skies is just as important. The BBC has interviewed a Ukrainian air defence officer about the battle for control of the skies. Captain Vasyl Kravchuk has a surprisingly ready smile for a man who has endured fifty days of war. They spoke to him via video link from his base at an undisclosed location. He knows the coming weeks will offer no respite. Russia may have received a bloody nose in its aborted attempts to take Kyiv, but with the Eastern region of the Donbas now firmly in Moscow's sights, the men and women of Dnipro's anti-aircraft missile brigade will continue to play a key role in the next phase of the war. Capt Kravchuk said, ‘Past wars have shown that whoever dominates the air wins the war’.

New Life Radio was based in Russia but moved to Odessa, Ukraine, in response to increasingly restrictive Russian laws. New Life’s founder and organiser said despite the current crisis, Christian radio is a crucial ministry for reaching Russian-speaking peoples. He said, ‘The importance of Christian radio is we can ensure Russian-speakers get solid biblical teaching and sound doctrine in a way that overcomes their inability to currently get it. When the government stops the evangelical church from evangelising and doing public discipleship, what’s the next vehicle that can accomplish that? Christian radio’. New Life Radio was launched as an FM station, then expanded its reach across Russia and surrounding Russian-speaking nations through satellite radio. They now broadcast on the internet around the world. During the Ukraine crisis they moved to Romania to continue broadcasting. They also now give updates for informed prayer.

Vladimir Putin has told his French counterpart the shelling of the besieged city of Mariupol will only end when Ukrainian troops surrender. The key southern port city has been under heavy shelling for weeks. French officials said on 30 March that the Russian leader had agreed to consider plans to evacuate civilians from the city. They called the situation in the city ‘catastrophic’, adding that civilian populations must be protected and must leave the city if they wish. They must have access to food aid, water and medicine. France, Turkey, Greece and several humanitarian groups have presented Putin with a plan to evacuate the city. Officials said Putin told Emmanuel Macron that he will think about it. However after the talks with Ukraine the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, played down any hopes of a breakthrough. On 31 March Ukraine made another attempt to send aid and bring back evacuees.

The general secretary of the Russian Evangelical Alliance said he felt called by God to speak out against the invasion of Ukraine. In an open letter Vitaly Vlasenko said he mourns what Russia has done and shared his sorrow for the victims and those forced to flee Ukraine. He wrote to President Putin twelve hours before the invasion to implore him to think again. He has not received a reply, but he has received letters of support from across the world. ‘They think that I’m really courageous, to openly say something about this, but I’m a simple pastor of the local Baptist Church.’ Vitaly’s parents were children of World War 2 and they told him how tough it was and that nothing is worse than a war. ‘We are in the 21st century and must think differently. We must discuss on a political level with the church, a place of reconciliation, peace and love.’

Pray that the Russian people learn the full truth about the war in Ukraine. Their main source of information comes from state-owned television. There is an increasing awareness of being lied to among the younger people who are active in social media. Truth sets free, and it can set alight a resistance against this war that Putin cannot ignore. Pray for Russian mothers! Sooner or later, the truth about the rising number of Russian casualties must come out. In 1994, after Chechnya tried to gain independence from Russia, the ‘Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers’ opposed the senseless and bloody war and went into the battle zone to confront and negotiate with the military. Many soldiers were released to return home. The Ukrainian government has already called the Russian mothers to come and collect their captured sons. God can raise up the mothers in Russia, once more, as instruments of peace.

One of Vladimir Putin’s often-repeated aims is to ‘denazify’ Ukraine. On the face of it, this is absurd, not least because President Zelensky is himself Jewish. Labelling political enemies ‘Nazis’ is also a common political ploy in Russia. Putin’s destructive actions - among them the devastation of Jewish communities - make clear that he is lying when he says his goal is to ensure everyone’s welfare. However, even if his claims may seem absurd propaganda, Ukraine has more neo-Nazi groups than any nation. The best-known of these is Azov, an all-volunteer ultra-nationalist military unit of around 900 which unofficially is part of the parliament.

Russian social media and private messaging groups are recruiting a brigade of mercenaries to fight in Ukraine alongside the army. The BBC interviewed a serving mercenary and former fighter linked to Russia's leading mercenary organisation who gave details of the recruitment campaign. He said many veterans of the secretive Wagner organisation were contacted on a private Telegram group a few weeks before the start of the war and invited to ‘picnic in Ukraine’, with references to tasting ‘Salo’, a pork fat traditionally eaten in Ukraine. The message appealed to ‘those with criminal records, debts, banned from mercenary groups or without an external passport’ to apply; plus ‘those from the Russian-occupied areas of Luhansk and Donetsk republics and Crimea are cordially invited’. The Wagner group, a most secretive Russian organisation, officially does not exist. Serving as a mercenary is against Russian and international law. Recruits are placed in units under officers from the GRU (Russian military intelligence unit).

The Russian military have admitted that conscripts (drafted against their will) have been sent into Ukraine. Previously Putin had repeatedly denied this. It suggests that his initial planned swift takeover with professional soldiers failed. Conscripts going to Ukraine and coming home in body bags could be politically dangerous for him and have a more immediate impact on Russian public and influential opinion than any sanctions or corporate departures. Many believe the former KGB spymaster is trying to revive Russia's tsarist greatness and restore the Soviet Union might prior to its 1991 break-up. Proverbs 6 says that the Lord hates an evildoer: verse 15 declares, ‘Disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed, without remedy.’

There are several individuals being sanctioned by other nations but not by the UK. Oleg Deripaska was sanctioned by America for money laundering, ordering the murder of a business rival, illegally wiretapping government officials, extortion, racketeering and bribing government officials. He owns 45% of an aluminium company listed on the London Stock Exchange, and former Conservative energy minister Lord Barker is its executive chairman. The Russian state-owned VTB bank was suspended from the Stock Exchange but Andrey Kostin, president of the bank, is not sanctioned. Victor Zolotov, also on the EU's list but not UK's, leads Russia's national guard. His family is one of the richest in Russia in the real estate sector, with property portfolios in the UK. Pro-Kremlin billionaire Alisher Usmanov founded Russian-based USM which owns major iron, steel and copper suppliers and a telecommunications company, and has commercial ties to Everton Football Club (which has suspended its sponsorship contracts with USM).