We will finish Acts in the next few days, but I would be remiss if I didn’t address the war in Ukraine where Ukrainian forces, undermanned and underequipped, are putting up quite a fight against Russian aggression. If you haven’t seen it, you will be encouraged by this story of Ukrainians resisting the takeover of the airport near Kyiv. Here’s a snippet:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia\u2019s bid to seize the airport embodied its military planners\u2019 ambitious assumptions that Ukrainian defense would collapse under overwhelming firepower. Russian officials and propagandists have for years boasted that Moscow\u2019s forces could overrun its smaller neighbor in days. But the resistance by Ukraine\u2019s army and soldiers such as Lt. Kharchenko, backed by volunteer fighters, has slowed the Russian advance, halting it entirely in the area around Hostomel Airport after a day of back-and-forth fighting.<\/em> – Putin Thought Ukraine Would Fall Quickly. An Airport Battle Proved Him Wrong<\/a>, Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With respect to resistance, I especially like what Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said when turning down an offer of evacuation from the United States:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I need ammunition, not a ride.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re wondering why Russian President Putin is invading a peaceful neighbor, the answer isn’t difficult according to Mike Metzger, head of Clapham Institute<\/a>. His article Reflections on the War in Ukraine<\/a> starts this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christians don\u2019t have to be foreign policy experts, but they should at least understand what gave rise to the war in Ukraine.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n With the invasion of Ukraine, I\u2019ve found myself reflecting on the sons of Issachar. They understood the times<\/a>. Do we understand what gave rise to the war in Ukraine? I don\u2019t get that impression reading four Opinion writers for the\u00a0New York Times. It\u2019s astonishing how often they say they\u2019re astonished at Putin\u2019s actions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We shouldn\u2019t be. Nor should Christians who ought to do better than this. We don\u2019t have to be foreign policy experts, but we can at least be familiar with Hedrick Smith\u2019s\u00a0The Russians<\/a>. I read it before visiting the USSR in 1989, a year before the Berlin Wall fell.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Smith writes how the\u00a0Rus, the Russian people, feel a deep sense of inferiority toward the West. I witnessed this when our tour guide kept discouraging us from buying Russian-made goods. \u201cThey\u2019re crap,\u201d she said. \u201cBuy goods made by Poles.\u201d This feeling of inferiority drives Russian leaders to seek secure borders against the West. We see inferiority and insecurity in George Kennan\u2019s\u00a0Long Telegram<\/a>, written in 1946.\u00a0<\/em>– Mike Metzger, February 28, 2022 (I recommend you read the article in its entirety<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n What to do? Here is a letter from Jaroslaw Lukasik from Ukraine. Jaroslaw is a European Leadership Forum<\/a> Steering Committee member and leader of the Eastern European Leadership Forum<\/a>., a leader in the European Leadership Forum:<\/p>\n\n\n\n