Voice of Ukraine

From Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 467):

From your presence let my vindication come! Let your eyes behold the right!
Psalm 17:2

In the days when too much information spreads too fast, it is crucial to discern truth from lies.

Russian propaganda has been spreading absurd lies about Ukraine since 2014 (actually, long before that, as they were preparing for the hybrid war). Some of the lies seem too ridiculous even to be refuted. Mallards from the “Askania-Nova” reserve spread deadly infections; killer mosquitoes that carry yellow fever, anthrax, and cholera; bats capable of infecting with plague and leptospirosis; combat-trained locust taught to destroy crops in the Luhansk region – these are just a few of the recent wild lies spread by Russia. Unfortunately, some people (both in Russia and the occupied territories) believe it.

These lies affect people on all levels. They make them slaves to fear, compelling them to look for conspiracies and turn on each other. Last year, it was reported that in the first half of 2022 alone, Russians wrote 145,000 denunciations against their fellow compatriots. This is a quarter more than during the same period in previous years. A resident of Moscow reported a man on the subway for wearing a yellow jacket with a blue sweater peeking out from under it. A 60-year-old pensioner from the suburbs of Moscow complained to the police that a local plant nursery was selling saplings of the Ukrainian “Glory to the Winners” apple tree variety. A headmistress of a school in a remote region of Russia reported to the police a student whose hair was decorated with blue and yellow ribbons. A pensioner from Crimea reported a bus passenger for having a tattoo of Stepan Bandera (a Ukrainian politician, one of the ideologists and theorists of the Ukrainian nationalist movement of the 20th century), which turned out to be a tattoo of the Irish actor Killian Murphy in his character of the “Peaky Blinders” series. And the most absurd denunciation was the case of a 29-year-old resident of Krasnohorsk who reported himself for painting a desperate anti-war slogan on the wall of a house in yellow and blue colors.

It might seem that these cases are made-up or come from a collection of anecdotes, but unfortunately, they are true. While we may laugh at some of them, I want to cry for the people who allowed themselves to come to a point where they don’t have the critical thinking, let the lies manipulate them, and would rather seek an easy way out than the truth.

However, I pray for the Lord to send more fear on the Russian soldiers. God, make them run in terror as they see Your light and recognize what they are doing. Let them run to You in repentance, seeking a bloodless resolution and eager to right their wrong. Lord, let Your light shine and let every eye see Your truth.