Voice of Ukraine

From Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 473):

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4

We keep processing the Kakhovka Dam tragedy, holding our breath and praying for the people in the Kherson region.

The water level is slowly receding, and the evacuation continues since it will take a while for the residents to return to their homes. Today, our police evacuated 21 civilians from the flooded, still-occupied part of the Kherson region (a total of 112 people). However, the Russian soldiers attacked the evacuation boat in the back, continuing genocidal practices against Ukrainian civilians. At least ten people received injuries, and three were killed – a 74-year-old man covered his wife with his body and was shot in the back.

As if to confirm that blowing up the Kakhovka dam was their doing, Russian soldiers blew up some smaller dams in the Zaporizhzhia region to prevent the Ukrainian army from attacking their positions. Thankfully, the destruction of those dams didn’t turn into a disaster.

We are still trying to grasp the consequences of this tragedy. It’s been reported that the destruction of the dam caused the salinity of the Black Sea to drop drastically, and it is almost three times lower than the norm in Odesa. The increased level of harmful substances has also been reported. This will definitely affect the ecology of the Black Sea, which means that our neighboring countries (mainly Romania and Bulgaria) may also suffer the consequences.

The UN has already stated that an unprecedented 700,000 people are now facing a dire shortage of drinking water in the South of Ukraine. The devastating impact of flooding in one of the world’s key food-producing regions will inevitably result in reduced grain exports, leading to higher global food prices and exacerbating the hunger crisis for millions in need.
If the world has grown numb to the pain of Ukraine and its people, will it at least be awakened by the threat of a global hunger crisis? Even last year, during the full-scale war, Ukraine managed to remain in the top-5 exporters of agricultural produce and exported grain to Egypt, Yemen, Israel, Iran, India, China, South Korea, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Djibouti, Turkey, and the EU, which helped reduce grain prices by 5%. What will we have this year? I saw a video of a woman weeping in the flooded watermelon field in the Kherson region, and it broke my heart. I know that the Lord will provide for the people of Ukraine (and for those who hunger in other countries), but still, this knowledge doesn’t take away the pain.

We are also trying to keep track of other developments. Today, 95 Ukrainian POWs returned home during the prisoner swap, and our armed forces liberated three villages in the Donetsk region (Blahodatne, Makarivka, and Neskuchne). Please, pray for our defenders and for God’s mercy on Ukraine.