Ukraine (MNN) — All signs point to the annihilation of hundreds in the Kyiv suburb Bucha following Russia’s retreat on Monday.
Speaking to the United Nations Security Council yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, “the massacre in our city of Bucha is only one of many examples of what [Russia has] been doing on our land for the past 41 days.”
Human Rights Watch documents abuses by Russian forces here.
Will supposed “global outrage” change anything on the ground? Western nations proposed further sanctions and sent dozens of Russian diplomats home. Equating Russia’s actions to war crimes, Zelensky urged the Security Council to immediate action:
“The United Nations Charter must be immediately restored and the system reformed so that the veto does not represent the right to die … Ukraine needs peace. Europe needs peace. The world needs peace.”
Read the full transcript here.
The latest developments are personal for Keys for Kids Ministries. Executive Director Greg Yoder received troubling news from partners in Ukraine. “I traveled to the region with Mission Eurasia and got to know many people there,” Yoder says.
“I just got a Facebook notification that one of their youth leaders was murdered in Bucha.”
Furthermore, “their headquarters in Irpine was destroyed. Gospels of John in their warehouse were taken out and burned,” Yoder says.
Reason to hope in Ukraine
Believers won’t give up hope because they see God’s timing in action. Last year, COVID restrictions kept Keys for Kids Ministries devotionals on the shelf. Now, the resources are leading people to Christ.
(Photo courtesy of Keys for Kids Ministries)
“We started, with our partners SEND International, to translate Keys for Kids and Unlocked into Russian and Ukrainian. Because of COVID, they couldn’t do much distribution. So all of the printed material had been sitting around until the war hit, and then pastors just gobbled them up,” Yoder says.
“The good news is thousands of people are coming to know Jesus Christ.”
Pray Keys for Kids will receive the funding it needs to print devotionals in Ukrainian and Russian.
“We have a request for 200,000 Keys for Kids and Unlocked devotionals to provide hope for families. We’re praying God will open the floodgates financially; that He will provide the means [to print this material],” Yoder says.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the city of Bucha in the Kyiv region, where mass killings of civilians took place during the occupation by Russian troops. (Wikimedia Commons)
