In February 2022 a long running civil war in Ukraine turned into open warfare between Russia and Ukraine with increasing support from NATO. More recently news reports have become less frequent and must be viewed in the light of that familiar statement: “Truth is the first casualty in war”.
Official statistics on war dead and casualties are often unreliable since neither side wants to provide a strategic advantage to their enemy and politicians are keen to keep up public morale. When statistics are disclosed, the news media usually gives a one-sided report about a local battle but without clearly stating the relevant timescale. A BBC report on 29th August carried this headline: “‘Dying by the dozens every day’ – Ukraine losses climb”. Ukraine has lost more than 70,000 men which can be partly explained by the counter-offensive in the south.
Social media may be even less trustworthy but reports on the Redacted channel on 5th and 7th September may be worthy of prayerful consideration:
· Estimates now have close to 500,000 dead on the Ukrainian side with two and a half million men permanently disabled,
· The Ukrainian government is getting desperate, they put out a call for the 3.3 million men of fighting age to return home to fight in Ukraine… the Polish are trying to figure out how to round up 80,000 that are still there and send them back.
· Ukraine is having to recruit women to fight on the front line.
· In the nine days from 29th August to 7th September, 7,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed which is more than the US lost in 16 years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In response to this news, Sue Claydon the APF Chair, has said: “Prayer and hope are the two arms of Christian peace-making”.
References:
BBC News/Europe 29th August 2023
Redacted News “Ukraine has no men left and now they’re Recruiting Women to Fight
Redacted News “Putin just changed EVERYTHING with this move and NATO knows it”
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