Dear Friends,
I hope you are doing well. There is so much going on in the news right now about Ukraine and I don’t really know what to believe or where to begin in updating you, because there are so many conflicting reports – but there seems to be a diplomatic shift happening. The overarching questions are these: will there be an end to hostilities in 2025? And if so, at what cost to Ukraine?
Currently, president Trump is in communication with Vladimir Putin and their was a summit in Saudi Arabia, but Ukrainian president Zelensky was furious over not being invited to the discussion table. Western countries met independently in France and they are trying to decide how to proceed in supporting Ukraine, if the United States chooses to withdrawal support and to determine the best way forward, according to their own interests and security concerns. Let’s keep praying for a quick resolution that doesn’t harm the citizenry of Ukraine any more than they have been during this tragic season of their history.
February 24, 2025 is the third anniversary of this expanded Ukrainian-Russian war. The war actually began on February 28, 2014 when masked Russian soldiers took over Crimea and portions of eastern Ukraine. From 2014-2020, my ministry supported refugees from the Donetsk and Lugansk regions (you can read many testimonies from that period of time here: https://www.slavicchristian.org/refugees). There was a two year reprieve for us, but then on February 24, 2022, Russia expanded the war with Ukraine and the hostilities escalated to where they are at today.
Since 2022, there has been a hug shift in sentiment within the United States, due to the length of this war, people tired of hearing about it, and decreasing press coverage. The war has been at a standstill for almost two years, with trench warfare, drone attacks, etc. Ukraine has been unable to take back any of the land that Russia took during the first year of the war, which equals about 20 percent of Ukraine’s landmass. Millions of men have been killed or injured on both sides and Ukraine has been taking young men off the streets (against their will as conscripts – many of whom never come back home).
You have blessed Ukraine so much, but we have had a noticeable drop off in donations, so please pray God will touch hearts. But this doesn’t negate the fact that each of you have been a huge blessing to the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine, one of the hardest hit areas in all of the war. From 2022 until today, through your help, our ministry has deployed $318,636 directly to on-field needs with $101,280 going directly to families in great need and the rest to our church partners for food, supplies, biblical resources, medicine, kid’s events, orphan needs, firewood, heating units, car repair, etc.
Because of your huge heart, you have brought hope to thousands upon thousands of deeply hurting and devastated people, who needed to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. You have helped make this happen – thank you!
Because our city is 25 miles from the Russian border, significant portions of our city and surrounding towns and villages have been damaged or destroyed by shelling, bombs, and missiles. Every location has some imprint of the war. The large loss of civilian has dropped dramatically, but now people are dealing with the byproducts of war – high unemployment, no money, little hope, and a very damaged psyche. I am curious to the number of people struggling with starvation and not having life-saving medication, especially in the villages where most of the elderly live. I can only imagine the number of people who are dealing with PTSD. My mother in law was evacuated from Ukraine and after two years of living with us in America, she still struggles with PTSD. I can’t imagine those living with it for three years straight within Ukraine. And what about the children, whose dad’s will never come home from war? What about them?
I have very few answers, but we can all keep the people of Ukraine in our prayers. I will sharing some orphan testimonies in two weeks and then the following month I will provide a fresh update on the soup kitchen that we help every year. If you would like to give to the orphans, soup kitchen or to the ministry’s general fund to help our churches that we sponsor and to our family, it would be a huge blessing. Thank you again for everything that you have done and continue to do for our ministry and Ukraine!
In Jesus’ love,
Ron
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