Vladimir Putin set the world on edge when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Does Ukraine stand a prayer of a chance?
Devastation
Not since World War II has Europe experienced the violence and destruction it now witnesses as a result of Russia’s invasion. Our entire world has been affected by the Ukrainian refugee crisis, the economic fallout, and the difficulty of exporting Ukrainian agricultural products (which is felt especially hard in the Global South).
The level of human suffering is massive. Hundreds of thousands of military personnel on both sides have been killed or wounded. Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure—in violation of international norms—have been targeted resulting in the loss of power, water, heat, shelter, and life. Basic human rights and freedoms have been and continue to be violated, including the right to religious freedom. Of special concern is the forced removal of children from their homes and families.
David vs Goliath
Two years later, support for Ukraine is becoming precarious. President Zelensky has often likened Ukraine vs Russia to the David vs Goliath story only in this version, David doesn’t have five stones for his sling.
In February 2024, Russia boasts an active army of 910,000 with increasing support from Iran, North Korea and China. Ukraine fields an army of approximately 310,000 with paused or decreasing support from the West.
The battlefields of eastern and southern Ukraine have taken on an eerie World War I brutal slog in trenches and mud. Five to six hundred soldiers from both sides died each day over the last two years. The frontlines extend over one thousand kilometres.
By late March, Ukraine faces a potentially catastrophic shortage of ammunition and air defenses that could effectively turn the tide of the war and lend Russia a significant advantage.
Prayer
We urge you to do these things:
1. Participate in a thirty minute online prayer meeting on Wednesday February 28th at 6:00am MT; 7:00am CT; 8:00am ET; 9:00am in Atlantic Canada.
2. Pray for the good. God is doing a wonderful work among Ukrainians with 1,000s of salvations, churches planted, and missionaries sent out. The war created the situation for revival, but love created the revival. Protestant churches deliver 80% of humanitarian aid in Ukraine.
3. Pray against evil and for a victory in the spiritual realm over the principalities and powers arrayed against Ukraine and who are motivating Putin. Democracies seldom, if ever, go to war. War is the realm of dictators and autocrats. Putin, though standing for “re-election”, behaves as a dictator. God is sovereign. He sets up and takes down rulers.
4. Ukrainians are spreading the gospel in Europe. Ukrainian Christians plant churches everywhere they are dispersed.
5. The next five weeks are critical for Ukraine. Pray for favour and increased supplies from the US and Western Europe for Ukraine. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada has info on prayer for Ukraine and a pastoral letter signed by 45 Canadian Church leaders.
Sign up here to participate in the prayer meeting on February 28th at 6:00am MT. If for some reason you are unable to register, this is the Zoom link for the prayer time.
Meeting ID: 844 216 0148
Passcode: 843757
Please join the conversation and prayer and post a comment below.
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