April 28, 2022

Praise Reports

  • UK – Arms – The UK is “digging deep” into its inventories, including heavy weapons, tanks and aeroplanes
  • NATO – Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of Nato, has said in Brussels “if they decide to apply, Finland and Sweden will be welcomed with open arms to NATO.”
  • Germany – Arms – Bundestag lower house of parliament has overwhelmingly approved a petition on support for Ukraine, backing the delivery of weapons including heavy arms to the country to help it fend off Russian attacks.
  • The Church – continues throughout Ukraine to take its place displaying courage, generosity, compassion, sacrifice, service and God’s Love to the least of these and even the worst of these – capture Russian soldiers.

Pray Points – Latest

  • The West – Persistence & Focus – Russia is counting on America to lose interest and focus and so become risk-averse in a long and ugly war. But also to prevent Russia from getting anything that it can claim as a victory by May 9th, there must a true defeat of the Russian military in the field and that will only happen with clear, powerful strategic support and supply of massive heavy weapons.
  • Russia – Gas – The Financial Times is reporting some of Europe’s largest gas importers are preparing to acquiesce to Russian demands that energy must be paid for in rubles. It says Gas distributors in Germany (34% dependence), Austria (5%), Hungary (58%) and Slovakia (96%) are planning to open ruble accounts at Gazprombank in Switzerland.
  • Russia – Navy – Russia’s Black Sea fleet retains the ability to strike Ukrainian and coastal targets, despite its “embarrassing losses”, Britain’s defense ministry said in its latest intelligence report this morning. Approximately 20 Russian Navy vessels are currently in the Black Sea operational zone, including submarines.
  • Kherson – The southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, which Russia claims to have captured, will transition to using the ruble from 1 May, according to Russian state media. The transition would take place over a period of four months, during which the Russian ruble and the Ukrainian hryvnia will be in circulation.
  • Ukraine – Energy – The southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, which Russia claims to have captured, will transition to using the ruble from 1 May, according to Russian state media.
  • Evacuations – today with no evacuations routes means that people are on their own to escape.
  • Russian Attacks – as predicted Russia has begun to shell Ukrainian positions on either side of the Zaporozhia Reservoir with western forces pressing toward Kryvyi Rih and eastern ones pressing to Zaporozhia.Kherson/Kryvyi Rih – Russian forces are massing for a push toward the Ukrainian heartland.
  • Ukraine – Economic/Structural Loss – Preliminary estimates of Ukraine’s losses from this war reach $600 billion today. More than 32 million square meters of living space, more than 1,500 educational facilities and more than 350 medical facilities have been destroyed or damaged. Economic entities suffered huge losses – hundreds of enterprises have been destroyed. About 2,500km of roads and almost 300 bridges have been ruined or damaged. And it’s not just statistics. This is Mariupol, this is Volnovakha, this is Okhtyrka, this is Chernihiv, this is Borodianka and dozens or dozens of our cities, towns and villages.” According to the president, more than 11.5 million Ukrainians have fled their homes due to the fighting, and about 5 million of them have gone abroad with 95% of migrants already wanting to return home. Damage caused to Ukraine’s infrastructure as a result of the war has reached almost $90 billion, the country’s minister of infrastructure added. Most of the damage has been inflicted on railway, road and bridge infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov said.
  • UN – The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has arrived in Ukraine after meeting Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow. Guterres will meet the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Thursday. He’s touring Borodyanka, Bucha and Irpin. In an interview yesterday, he said he told Putin that “the Russian invasion is against the charter of the United Nations it is a violation of territorial integrity of Ukraine and that this war must end as quickly as possible. And at the same time our concerns about violations of international human rights and war crimes.” But also has finally recognized that “the war will not end with meetings. The war will end when the Russian Federation decides to end it and when there is – after a ceasefire – a possibility of a serious political agreement. We can have all the meetings but that is not what will end the war.”
  • Mariupol – Russia continues to bomb Azovstal steelworks and slowly take some of the northernmost warehouses, but at great cost as 1000-2000 Ukrainian fighters continue to hold out and defend the 1000-2000 civilians inside.
  • Izyum/Kherson/Zaporozhye – there is much evidence that Russia is desperately attempting to catch and conscript any and all able men in the occupied regions and force them to fight for them.
  • Russian Military – time is running out and so their attacks and tactics will become increasingly desparate as these are the true last roll of the die. Because they have till May 9th to deliver Putin his victory but even sooner is May 4th the financial default and true victory would give them means to negotiate.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 5.2 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

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
  • 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 – pray that all their various alternative narratives would be revealed as rags and shadows for all to see.
  • 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.
  • Oil – Pray that Europe would have the political will to do a complete embargo of Russian fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal, etc.)
  • Occupied – Many villages completely cut off from all supplies and food and water!
  • 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 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
  • 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. Sanctions – Loopholes would be closed and sanctions rendered effective
    2. Oil Embargo – That Europe would make the choice to stop immediately at the very least paying for gas & oil
    3. Heavy Weapons – provide planes, tanks, heavy artillery and high-altitude weapons

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