Voice of Ukraine

From Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 368):

God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered;
and those who hate him shall flee before him!
Psalm 68:1

Remembering that this war started 9 years ago, February 26 is the Day of Resistance to the Occupation of Crimea. On this day in 2014, a rally was held in Simferopol (Crimea) in support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. At night, Russian special forces in military uniform without insignia seized the parliament’s building, and a sham referendum took place two weeks later. The rally participants were persecuted. Over the past nine years, 180 people have become political prisoners of the Kremlin; of these, 116 are Crimean Tatars. The beautiful Crimean peninsula has been turned into a military base and a place with little respect for human rights. Appeasement only increases the appetites of the aggressor. May Crimea be free and prosperous again.

Today in the morning, there were reports of explosions at the Machulishchy airfield in Belarus. Although Belarus has not officially declared war on Ukraine, Russian forces have been using its territory to launch attacks on Ukraine since February 2022. The airfield in Machulishchy was frequently used for massive missile attacks on Ukraine. According to today’s reports, this airfield was attacked by drones. The damage was done to the Russian A-50 early warning and control aircraft (used to track Ukrainian air defense systems and provide radar guidance during missile attacks). It looks like the attack was carried out by Belarusian partisans who have safely left the country. Some experts say that this is huge and even compare it to the sinking of the Russian Moskva warship, as the Russian army has a limited number of aircraft of this kind.

As I’m writing this, the air raid warning is spreading over Ukraine. Kamikaze drones have been detected over the northern regions and Kyiv. Usually, missiles come after drones. We expected the attack on February 24, but it didn’t happen. Apparently, the Russians naively believe they can surprise us with an attack on Monday morning. We trust in God’s protection over our cities and in His hand over our air defense.