April 23, 2022

Praise Reports

  • Success – The governor of the eastern Kharkiv region, Oleg Sinegubov, said on Telegram that Kyiv regained control of three villages near the Russian border following “fierce battles”.
  • Truth Revealed #1 – Mariupol – Russia has been hiding evidence of its “barbaric” war crimes in Mariupol by burying the bodies of civilians killed by shelling in a new mass grave that could hold as many as 9,000 dead, local officials said. It comes after a US satellite imagery company released photos that appeared to match the site.
  • Truth Revealed #2 – Kiev – Ukraine’s top prosecutor has accused the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, of having a pre-hatched plan for his troops to torture, rape and execute civilians in Ukraine who refuse to capitulate. Speaking to Sky News, Iryna Venediktova said her team is working on almost 8,000 war crimes cases from around Ukraine, including summary executions, sexual violence and the forced deportation of children to Russia. There are a “huge number of cases” of Russian troops killing Ukrainians simply because they did not like them, Venediktova said. In the Kyiv region alone, her team had information on more than 1,000 civilians killed in areas previously occupied by Russian forces, although the total number could well be higher, she said. Asked whether she thought the shooting of civilians, execution-style, had been pre-planned by Russia before the invasion, Venediktova said: “I think it is a strategy of their chief of commander, because we see the same strategy in other countries. They have Plan A: cities should capitulate, if a city does not capitulate it means Plan B: to scare this population to the maximum. Kill, rape, torture, and other brutal things. It is a strategy of war.
  • Truth Revealed # 3 Russia – Military official, Rustam Minnekayev, said Russia plans to take full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine as part of the second phase of its military operation. Russia intends to forge a land corridor between Crimea and Donbas, he said, adding that control of Ukraine’s south will give Russia another gateway to Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria.
  • Truth Revealed #4 – Anonymous –continuing to release hacked database totalling over 6 million documents showing the Russian levels of corruption
  • Economy – Europe can get by without Russian gas for six months, but beyond that, the economic impact would be severe according to a senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said

Pray Points – Latest

  • UN – The UN secretary general, António Guterres, will visit Moscow on Tuesday to meet with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, a spokesperson for Guterres said. Guterres will also have a working meeting and lunch with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, the spokesperson said.
  • Mariupol – Russian forces had resumed air strikes on the Azovstal Steelworks and were trying to storm it, which would represent a reversal from an order Russian President Vladimir Putin gave two days earlier. There are an estimated 2000 Ukrainian soldiers there with many more civilians.
Azovstal Steelworks in Mariupol

A view shows a plant of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 21, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

Diagram of Azovstal

  • Izyum – Maxim Strelnik, deputy of the Izium City Council said “It is impossible to leave the city in an organized manner in the territory controlled by Ukraine. For more than a month now, they have been refusing to provide corridors to bring food, water, medicine and evacuate patients and children. All communications are destroyed: light, water, heat, gas, mobile communication. The people of Izyum are being used as a human shield. There is no organized departure, but people try to do it on their own. Russia is also trying to forcibly mobilize men in the occupied city. Russian troops are clearing the city, entering houses, checking all roofs and basements, and when they find men, they are trying to involve them in illegal military activities. They stop at checkpoints, search and interrogate, and enroll men in their formations.
  • Ground Attacks – All across the northeast from Kharkiv to Izyum to Poposna the Russian forces are ferociously even as Ukrainian artillery scales back.
  • Ukrainian Artillery – all of the defensive positions are using Soviet Era 152mm ammunition and NATO has been scrambling to provide Ukraine with all that it needs but they are running out. As the US is finally willing to send artillery (theirs is 155mm) it will still be months until it can reach the front lines and be used effectively.
  • 6 Russian Key Objectives to Pray Against
    1. Kharkiv – Destroy, Encircle, Capture
    2. Izyum – push south to encircle Donbas
    3. Slavyonsk and Kramatorsk – in the east to complete a smaller encirclement of the cities
    4. Mariupol – completely destroy all opposition and export the populations
    5. Zaporozhye – Russian troops are building up forces and building logistics a massive concerted attack
    6. Kherson – Russia is facing sabotage from the people but is still attempting to push north toward Kryvyi Rih and west toward Mykolaiv, then to Odessa and to Transnistria and eventually to Moldova.
  • Mariupol – pray that they food and water are multiplied and supernaturally provided. That Ukraine gets to them and is able to resupply and evacuate them. Also that the Ukrainians there would strike back rather than just hide.
  • Evacuations – no evacuations were possible yesterday because the Russians refused to allow it
  • Germany – continues to drag its’ feet in supporting Ukraine even as the vast majority of the people want them to.
  • Deportations – Russia has deported over 500,000 people from Ukraine to Russia. 134,000 of those from Mariupol alone.
  • Mercenaries – Continue to pray for all mercenaries to be neutralized in any way!
  • Logistics – Russia logistical challenges are still problematic even though the supply lines to the Donbas are shorter, and much will depend on the condition of the roads and railways.
  • Refugees – now 5 million have fled Ukraine. Pray for their safety, provision and care.
  • West – pray that the pressure would continue to mount on western leaders to ban oil and gas imports and to continue to increase meaningful heavy arms donations.
  • Russia – pray that the emotional need to make a huge statement and reaction to the sinking of Moskva will lead to Russia moving prematurely and without adequate preparation and coordination and thereby dooming their own assault. Or to make a move that so steels international resolve that it makes supporting Russia impossible even for China and India.
  • Belarus – Secretary of security council of Belarus warns of provocations from Ukraine to get Belarus involved in the war
  • Russian People – pray they understand the Truth and reject the lies they’ve been told and rise up
  • US – pray that Lend/Lease gets fast-tracked and raise on the House floor and approved today
  • China – has doubled down and the Russian propaganda and refused to admit the atrocities were committed by Russia or any other point
  • France – Macron’s election is on April 24 and he is finally backing Ukraine more and more, but Marine Le Pen is not.

Pray Points – Continued

  • Ukraine – Almost two-thirds of Ukrainian children have fled their homes, the UN says. About 4.8 million out of 7.5 million children had to leave their homes, said Manuel Fontaine from UNICEF. He confirmed the deaths of 142 children, but added that the number is “almost certainly higher”
  • Economy – Ukraine economy to contract 45.1% this year, Russia 11.2%: World Bank
  • Rage – Pray against rage as videos have come to the four about Ukrainian soldiers summarily executing Russian soldiers. Although they can obviously feel incredibly justified, this is destructive to them and provides ammunition to Russia their attempt to create an alternative narrative in Ukraine.
  • Russian Military – Russia is sending an 8-mi long convoy of 100s of vehicles, including armored vehicles and artillery southbound through the Ukrainian town of Velykyi Burluk. The convoy is moving about 60 mi east of Ukraine’s 2nd-largest city of Kharkiv, as Russian focuses on Donbas. Russian Ministry of Defense claims destruction S-300 SAM at Chuhuiv airbase and Starobohdanovka in Mykolaiv region. Also claimed destruction of National Guard base in Zvonetske of Dnipropetrovsk region
  • Luhansk – Governor says “They (Russia) are amassing forces for an offensive and we see the number of shelling has increased, ”and that some 30% of people still remain in settlements there and have been asked to evacuate.
  • Russian Reorganization – Russia has reorganized the command of its battle operations in Ukraine, installing a new general, The commander of Russia’s southern military district, Gen Alexander Dvornikov, with extensive experience in Russian operations in Syria, leads the invasion. He distinguished himself in military circles as a specialist in combating “terrorism,” Receiving high honors from Putin for the ways he led in Chechnya and Syria, both areas where the Russian army has been known for their brutality. He also was the leader of the only units that have been effective in the Invasion overseeing the southern portion of the front.
  • Dnipro – The mayor of Dnipro, a city in central-eastern Ukraine, has urged women, children and elderly people to leave because fighting with Russia is expected to intensify in eastern regions.
  • TRUTH – pray that an ever-increasing steady stream of the atrocities committed by the Russians will be revealed and documented to maintain the ever-increasing pressure on political leaders and parties to act with speed, vigor and determination.
  • Russian Lies – Russian Propaganda has gained a huge following in Spanish-speaking countries. For an example of the latest wave, “Ukrainianism is an artificial anti-Russian construct that has no civilisational substance of its own, a subordinate element of an extraneous and alien civilisation,” wrote a RIA Novosti columnist earlier this week. The “re-education” of Ukraine could take a generation, he wrote, adding that “besides the highest ranks, a significant number of common people are also guilty of being passive Nazis and Nazi accomplices”.
  • Evacuation & Panic – Ukraine has urged civilians to leave the east of the country “while the opportunity still exists” before a massive Russian military assault that it expects in the coming days. The governors of the Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions were calling on people to move immediately to safer areas. “It has to be done now, because later people will be under fire and face the threat of death. There is nothing they will be able to do about it.
  • May 9 – Reports are that Putin needs the invasion successful in time for the Victory Day parades, thereby threatening great attacks over the coming month. Putin would want to have an “announceable success” by then, which could create “some tension” with Russian commanders as exhausted forces were likely to be thrown into battle fairly soon in an attempt to gain ground in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv. This also is at the end of the 30-day default negotiation period (ending on May 5) meaning incredible pressure is on Russia to achieve victory by then.
  • Europe/US – pray they will block all gas imports and provide truly meaningful military support.
  • Russia’s Invasion – pray against the preparations the Russian army is making to re-invade Sumy and Donbas and Mikolaiv
  • Oil – Pray that Europe would have the political will to do a complete embargo of Russian fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal, etc.)
  • Retreating Russians – Russian troops planted explosives at Cookies plant in Bucha, also poisoned all products at warehouses also retreating Russian forces are creating “a complete disaster” by leaving mines on homes and corpses in their wake, as renewed missile strikes on Ukrainian cities were reported. And 200 Ukrainian National Guard troops were also taken prisoner back to Belarus when the Russians left Chernobyl.
  • Sumy/Kharkiv – Many villages completely cut off from all supplies and food and water!
  • Izyum – Russian troops captured Izyum town in Kharkiv region
  • China – Ukraine’s security service said the Chinese government attempted to hack more than 600 websites belonging to the government and other key institutions, beginning before the Olympics.
  • Global Food – there could be a global food crisis as Ukrainian farmers are being forced to limit what they plant due to the war. And also due to the fact that the main ways that they have a reaching global markets through the Black Sea is now blocked by Russia. Russia and Ukraine together produce 25% of all green in the world!
  • Refugees – According to Polish border guards, more than 2.4 million people have fled Ukraine to Poland . However, supplies have dropped off and now the whole regions are struggling.
  • For the Weak – Russia has flown more than 300 air sorties over Ukraine in the past 24 hours: senior U.S. defense official
  • Russian Elites – to turn on one another and on Putin
  • Russian Conscripts – President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree ordering 134,500 new conscripts into the army as part of Russia’s annual spring draft, but the defence ministry said the call-up had nothing to do with the war in Ukraine.
  • Russian Mercenaries – British military intelligence said on Monday the Russian private military company, the Wagner Group, has been deployed to eastern Ukraine. “They are expected to deploy more than 1,000 mercenaries, including senior leaders of the organization, to undertake combat operations,” Britain’s Ministry of Defense said. These are particularly used to create terror to break the back of citizen resistance in occupied territories
  • Russian Military – continuing to press in the north, but the real danger is that Russia seems to preparing for an all-out push in Donbas to encircle the Ukrainian army and to take the entire region and to create a united front against Ukraine.
  • Russian Soldiers – pray for their physical,emotional and spiritual well-being and for them to have the courage to face the Truth and the opportunity to receive the Gospel which is the ONLY answer to the atrocities they’ve already committed.
  • Russian Opposition – that those in the inner circle will see a way out and that Russian Opposition would be able to gather together in a meaningful way
  • Russia Offensive – Russia attempts to break
  • The Truth – In all things that the Truth would be painfully evident and unavoidable in all public discussion
  • Ukrainian Army – Russia is attempting to encircle the Ukrainian Army in Donbas
  • Russia – for the people to wake up to the Truth and rise up
  • Putin’s Inner Circle – to fragment and turn on one another
  • Protection of the Weak
  • The West – to not grow numb to atrocities, but be compelled to action
    1. Military Aid – High Altitude Missiles
    2. Evacuation – Mariupol
    3. Peace Keepers – to aid evacuations and protect and provide humanitarian aid

Prayer Strategies

  • Corruption & Domination Falls
    • Russia, Belarus & Ukraine
    • The Former Soviet Union
    • China, India, UAE & Saudi Arabia
  • Truth & Freedom prevail
  • The Gospel is spreads like wildfire
    • From Ukraine
    • To Russia
    • To the whole world

Prayer Encouragement

“Each time, before you intercede, be quiet first, and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. Think of your place and privilege in Christ, and expect great things!”  — Andrew Murray