According to Ukraine’s Minister of Energy, Herman Halushchenko, Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure continued overnight with a massive missile and UAV attack targeting multiple energy generating facilities and transmission systems in the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv and Kyiv regions.
The Official Governmental Website of Ukraine reports that Russia’s overnight attack destroyed the Trypilska Thermal Power Plant (“TPP”), which was the largest supplier of electricity in the Kyiv, Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions.
The Trypilska TPP was the last functioning PJSC Centrenergo facility, as Russia already destroyed Kharkiv’s Zmiivska TPP on March 22, 2024, and has occupied Donetsk’s Vuhlehirska TPP. The full report may be read HERE.
The cost of Russia’s war has been high for Ukraine, but also for Russia. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, from February 24, 2022 to the present, Russia has suffered the loss of approximately 450,890 military members, 7,137 tanks, 13,679 armored vehicles, 11,452 artillery systems, 1,040 MLRS, 754 anti-aircraft warfare systems, 347 aircraft, 325 helicopters, 15,298 military automobiles and fuel tanks, 26 military boats, one submarine; 9,104 tactical UAVs, 1,882 items of special military equipment, and 2,069 cruise missiles.
My brothers and sisters, the number of Russian military deaths is quickly approaching an estimate of one-half million (500,000) persons! Russian President Vladimir Putin, a product of the Cold War and former Soviet KGB officer, does not seem to care at all about the evil, destruction and murder he alone has brought upon an entire continent, nation and its people.
President Putin continues to threaten the use of nuclear arms! Any person of international prominence who speaks in this manner and has the ability to make it happen, is grossly dangerous and must be checked firmly or stopped. A diplomatic “war of words” without military options to back them up, means nothing to President Putin.
Astoundingly, at least to this writer, are the number of Americans, many of whom are federally-elected officials, who ignorantly or through intellectual dishonesty attempt to equate the murderous and unprovoked war against Ukraine with the politically-driven (and grossly misguided) federal policies of the United States regarding its national borders.
This perspective is dishonest and nothing short of opportunism. The war against Ukraine may be a lot of things, but it’s not a simple border policy dispute or a self-inflicted wound by Ukraine!
The war against Ukraine involves the security of the entire European Continent and the standards of international security established following WWII, which spilled the blood of millions, killing millions of Jews in the Holocaust, ushering in the age of nuclear weapons, and igniting the subsequent Cold War between the West and the former Soviet Union.
Scripture and God-given wisdom tell us to forgive those who seek forgiveness, as we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God (see Romans 3:23); however, this writer is not aware of any statement issued by President Putin that would lead me to consider that he has or is about to repent (see 2 Peter 3:9).
Honesty is key – especially for those of us who are Christians. I beseech my fellow Americans to see beyond the dishonesty of the politics affecting the United States right now and to see those persons, whether Ukrainian or Russian, as persons made by God, in the image of God, in the likeness of God, who were known by God before they were ever formed in their mothers’ wombs, and for whom God desires to be saved and live eternally with Him in heaven (see Psalm 139:13-16, Jeremiah 1:5 and 1 Timothy 2:4-6)!
This situation transcends money, national pride and opportunism. Like the abortion issue, the issue of the war in Ukraine directly impacts real human lives, lives loved by God just as much as He loves you and me (see John 17:20-23)!
Regardless of our individual political views, let’s come into agreement and pray for the end of this war, as men, women and children are suffering and dying needlessly every single day. This war of attrition does not bode well in the long run for Ukraine. In fact, it seems that Western nations, including or especially the Untied States, send Ukraine just enough money and arms – often delayed and with strings or rules attached – to assure that the killing continues to a stalemate, but never to a victory.
Here are the above-referenced scriptures:
Romans 3:23 (NKJV)
“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”.
2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV)
“The Lord is not slack [slow, tardy] concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering [patient] toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance [emphasis mine].”
Psalm 139:13-16 (NLT)
“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank [Y]ou for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in [Y]our book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
Jeremiah 1:5 (NKJV)
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…”.
1 Timothy 2:4-6 (NKJV)
God Desires All To Be Saved
“[God our Savior] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all…”.
John 17:20-23 (NKJV)
Jesus Prays to the Father – The Father Loves Us Just Like He Loves Jesus
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me [emphasis mine].”
And, let’s not forget this important, yet sometimes hard, biblical truth:
Proverbs 13:20 (NKJV)
“He who walks with wise men will be wise, [b]ut the companion of fools will be destroyed.”
Praise Jesus forevermore!