Displaying items by tag: Ukraine

Elżbieta Jarmulska, a feisty Polish entrepreneur, is the founder of the Women Take The Wheel Initiative to provide Ukrainian refugees with a ‘bubble of safety’. She says, ‘Those women have been through so much already, walking or driving their way through a war zone and now are exposed to fear and exploitation here? I have no words for what that must be like’. Elżbieta has recruited 650+ Polish ‘amazing women’, as she describes them, driving backwards and forwards as often as they can to the Polish-Ukrainian border, in order to offer refugees safe passage. They show their ID card and proof of residence to officials, before asking if anyone wanted a lift to Warsaw. The car is full in moments. Small children are given water, chocolate and motion-sickness tablets if they need them. The women are so relieved when they see they have a female driver to help them to safety.

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.

Alexander, Iryna and their children are in Kyiv and tell us how their faith helps them to live under siege. ‘Millions are praying for Ukraine and we believe that God has the victory. It's scary, we feel fear and don't know what the next hour will bring, but God is still the same as 2,000 years ago. We see military helicopters, hear shelling, but we believe we will win. People will have to give lives for this freedom but we know our nation is strong. We know that the truth will win, and the darkness and the lie will be exposed. Sometimes we don’t see God's intentions, but he hasn’t stopped doing his work and we must trust and believe. Our God came to give us life and no doubt, it's a spiritual battle. We are on the prayer frontline. God's word is alive, God’s word comforts. His word is active and gives us strength, his spirit is within us. God is big, he's bigger than any enemy.’

Ukraine’s Christians are praying for God's protection, peace, and His will to be done, seeking Him in churches, bomb shelters, and homes. They are believing for miracles, healing and the supernatural presence of God to manifest itself powerfully throughout Ukraine. There is such faith being exercised, with crying out to God, as shown on videos, that some wonder if the presence and glory of God will become so pervasive that Russian soldiers will kneel down and repent on the battlefield, while Ukrainians extend grace, forgiveness and mercy, showing the love of Christ. In the midst of trial and war, the church is singing. It is standing against the wave of evil, bringing a standard of righteousness and holiness in the midst of calamity. Worship and prayer, spiritual warfare tools, are cutting through the darkness and joining brothers and sisters in Christ worldwide.

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.

Orphan's Promise has ministered to the needs of tens of thousands of people across Ukraine for many years. Valentina is an Orphan's Promise aid worker; when Russian troops arrived and learned that she was helping the Ukrainians they kidnapped her. Orphan's Promise provides food and shelter to desperate Ukrainians and shares Jesus with them. Valentina’s team evacuates women, children, the sick and elderly from hot spots. While under fire they drive to bakeries, also working under fire, and deliver bread to hungry people while also providing them with spiritual food. Valentina's friends and colleagues are very concerned for her safety, asking Christians to pray that she will not be tortured and will be released soon. Pray also for all those bringing urgent humanitarian aid to areas which have faced countless air strikes and are now occupied by Russian forces.

In the midst of the current conflict that has brought horrendous suffering to the Ukrainian people, numerous reports are coming through of divine intervention and protection, and specific answers to prayer. There are encouraging testimonies of people being led out of danger shortly before an attack, bombs that fail to explode, enemy forces coming under great confusion, angel formations in the sky, and of God’s tangible presence. A pastor based in Kyiv also noted how very heartening it was to see ‘many people in the Ukrainian army asking for prayer’: see

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.

Foreign minister Wang Yi says that China is not a party to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, as pressure grows on it to withdraw support for Moscow. He said China rejects sanctions in principle and ‘has the right to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests’, calling the three-week conflict in Ukraine ‘the product of the accumulation and intensification of European security contradictions over the years’. There was no mention of recent reports that Russia had asked China for military and economic help after the start of the war. On 13 March US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told Beijing that there will be consequences for large-scale sanctions evasion efforts or support to Russia to backfill them. China’s foreign ministry spokesman said the US had been spreading disinformation targeting China on the Ukraine issue. Asked if he could clarify whether China had received a request for military help from Russia, Mr Zhao said this was ‘fake news’ but did not deny it.

Christiana Moon, a YWAM missionary from Essex who fled from Kyiv, has described her escape as surreal and crazy, ‘like a dream’, but said she experienced ‘real moments of light’. She has been sheltering at the home of two Ukrainian Christians in Lviv, and plans to board a bus to Poland, then fly to England. The 22-year-old said ‘I can't believe last Sunday, I led Bible study with my church, it was just normal. Now the sky is grey with smoke.’ She said that being in Ukraine has been ‘a journey of trusting God when you have to make so many quick decisions. With people giving you advice or panicking around you, I have learnt how to listen to God’s voice.’ Christians in Lviv opened up their home to her and the church is hosting many refugees. It’s an incredible moment of light that non-believers are witnessing.