Ukraine (MNN) — Three years ago today, in the early morning of February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine.
It may have started out as a “special military operation” as Russia’s president called it. But after three years and tens — probably hundreds — of thousands of lives lost on either side, it’s another story.
TWR Ukraine team members prepare to record programs in their makeshift studio space amid rolling power outages and continued missile attacks. (Photo from 2022, caption courtesy of TWR)
A man we’ll call Jan Benson serves with Trans World Radio. Their team in Ukraine has continued to create gospel-centered media throughout the war.
“But of course, it gets harder and harder to do that because they’re all very tired. They still have some power [outages], [sometimes] they don’t have internet, they don’t have light. They can’t plan as we did before the war to produce the content,” Benson says.
The UNHCR estimates 6.9 million people have fled Ukraine since 2022 due to the war. Benson says, “The majority of people that left are still outside of the country. They are on Cyprus, they are in Poland, they are in the U.S…. I don’t know if they will ever return.”
Many Ukrainians are asking serious questions, and TWR content meets them with truth.
“A lot of people in the country are looking for information, are looking maybe for God or just to find some answers. They find our teams there, and the content suits them in their questions regarding the war or losing someone from the family,” he says.
“They (the TWR team) even get a lot of testimonies back that people heard their content, and, for example, starting believing in God. So God is there and is moving and is changing hearts. That’s what we are doing it for, that Jesus Christ is known [in] all of the country.”
The team also praises God that although some of their number have left Ukraine, “no one was hurt in [these] last three years. Their homes and their churches are fully intact, and even the place where the recording studio is is also in place.”
Read more about the TWR Ukraine team and the three-year anniversary here.
Find your place in the story
The three-year mark of the Russia-Ukraine war comes at a tumultuous political time. But for Christians, we remember God has our first allegiance. Pray for brothers and sisters in Christ on today’s hard anniversary, that God will lift their eyes to Himself.
Then, if you’ve perhaps given up on praying for peace for Ukraine and Russia, you aren’t alone, but please don’t stay there.
“Let’s pray that God finds a way — and He will do that, and He’s able to — but [pray] that we can believe in Him, that He finds a way to stop the war,” says Benson.
Header photo: (from 2022) Members of the TWR Ukraine team film one of the numerous videos that have populated their social media channels. The videos join a flood of content created to minister to the people of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and surrounding areas. (Photo, caption courtesy of TWR Ukraine)
