Voice of Ukraine

From Maia Mikhaluk in Kyiv (614th day):
Ukrainian religious leaders representing All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations came to Washington to share personal testimonies of the suffering of the people of Ukraine from Russian aggression.

“The Russian occupation authorities treat the civilian population of Ukraine so cruelly that abroad they cannot even imagine such barbarism in the 21st century. Peaceful residents are prohibited from leaving the occupied territories of Ukraine, so they cannot escape Russian repression against all religious minorities, manifestations of Ukrainian identity and any forms of opposition. That is why the democratic world should support Ukraine more strongly and finally stop this global evil, which Russia is trying to spread not only within itself, but also throughout the world ,” emphasized Stanislav Nosov , Chairman of the Ukrainian delegation.

After the events in Washington, Ukrainian religious leaders will visit Houston, Texas, where they will hold a series of meetings with local religious leaders, politicians and opinion leaders.

We pray that this visit and discussions with religious communities in the USA will be effective. The support of Ukraine seems to be wavering because of position of some leaders of Republican party, the party strongly supported by Christians in the USA. It’s so important for political leaders to understand that what is happening in Ukraine is not “territorial dispute” as some want to conveniently downplay it. It’s a war that dictator putin wages against democratic world and freedom. Allowing him to keep occupied territories or even to destroy the whole of Ukraine will not stop this war – because it’s the new world order that putin is after – the world order where bigger countries with nuclear arsenal can act like criminals towards smaller neighboring countries, the world order where there is no rule of law but rather a rule of evil.

About a year ago I was having a chat discussion with someone who claimed to be a Christian and a supporter of Trump. The essence of her message was that as a Christian, she was sympathetic to the suffering of Ukrainians and she wanted to donate money for shoes for internally displaced kids through our ministry, but at the same time, as an American, she didn’t want her government to help Ukraine in any way because every government should take care of its own people and not waste resources on helping others. I found her position to be very hypocritical and insincere. If the democratic world decides not to stand for its values and stop helping Ukraine, there will be no kids who need shoes in Ukraine – ruzzians will kill us all.

Those who favor cutting support to Ukraine because they think Ukraine is irrelevant to them might be short-sighted in their thinking. Remember confessional prose by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller:

“First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

And if Christians don’t stand up against apparent evil and sin, then who will?