April 9, 2022

Praise Reports

  • Pushback – Ukrainian military repelled 4 Russian attacks yesterday at Donbas
  • Stories of Victory – Sunday, Russia’s vehicular lossesin a fight with an all-volunteer Ukrainian battalion in the battle to liberate Nova Basan speak both to the Ukrainian fighters’ skills and their capacity to fight at scale. Just one Ukrainian tank and two infantry vehicles known as BMPs destroyed or captured twenty Russian vehicles. Ukrainian forces lost one vehicle in the battle, which came to rest on a broken fence line, straddling two Russian trenches.
  • Evacuations – 6665 people were evacuted yesterday to safe areas, including 5158 from Mariupol and Zaporizhiye region.
  • Russian Losses – Ukraine has estimated that 18,900 Russian soldiers have died since the beginning of the war. 15% of confirmed Russian losses are from elite units. 60 elite paratroopers are being charged with desertion for refusing to go Ukraine. 2 whole national guard units has refused to go and there are requests from soldiers of 17 different cities for aid as they’re trying to fight being sent to Ukraine.
  • Putin – finally seeing what was always there – The Guardian “The Russian president has always shown us exactly who he is. So why did it take the invasion of Ukraine for us to believe him?”
    EU – The 5th EU sanctions package in response to Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine is now in force.
  • EU – EU @vonderleyen handed over a questionnaire to UA President – a step in granting EU candidate status. According to her, it’s an accelerated procedure, as “we know a lot about each other. The filling will take weeks, not years”. @ZelenskyyUa: “we will be ready in a week”
    with the result that Ukraine ‘expects to be granted EU candidate status in June’, minister says
  • US – U.S. ‘not buying’ Russia’s denial about launching SS-21 short-range ballistic missile strike at train station in eastern Ukraine killing dozens: U.S. senior defense official
  • Russia – Russian forces have launched over 1,500 missiles into Ukraine: and they continued last night to launch missiles from ships at Odessa, Mariupol and Donbas
  • Anti-Aircraft Missiles – The US will reposition one Patriot missile system in Slovakia to backfill the Russian-made S-300 air defenses sent to Ukraine today, SecDef Lloyd Austin said. The US battery in Slovakia will be manned by US troops. The US has Aegis Ashore in Romania and soon in Poland
  • Pakistan – prime minister Imran Khan has become first international political casualty from allying with Putin and looks to be ousted from office today in a no-confidence vote
  • China – Some international fund managers are concerned about holding Chinese assets following the harsh economic sanctions imposed by the West on Russia. In addition. Russia’s central bank was likely shedding Chinese bondholdings to raise cash and repay foreign debts, since its U.S., Japanese and European assets are effectively frozen.
  • Marshall Plan – It’s not too early for the European Union and United States to begin working now on a post-conflict recovery effort for Ukraine, something akin to a modern-day Marshall Plan.
  • False Flag – Russia’s claims that the bodies in the streets of Bucha was the work of Ukrainians has been disproven by an independent russian site Meduza with drone footage.
  • Default – as Russia is technically in default, failing to pay their two bond payments Monday in dollars, this enters a 30 day negotiation window, within which Russia can attempt to stay afloat.

Pray Points – Today’s Latest

  • Russian Reinforcements – Russia mobilizing 60,000 reservists to join the war in Ukraine: U.S. senior defense official. Wagner Group is about at 1,000 people “focused in the Donbas, particularly in and around Donetsk” per a senior US defense official. Russia has lost up to 20% of its ‘combat power’ (soldiers, aircraft, tanks and other vehicles) since launching invasion of Ukraine Feb. 24: U.S. senior defense official
  • Russian Air Force – Russia’s sortie count in past 24 hours – 240-250 with “overwhelming weight and focus” of strikes in Mariupol and eastern Donbas, per a senior US defense official
  • Evacuations – Ukrainian railways company Ukrzaliznytsa scheduled 6 evacuation trains today from Pokrovsk and 4 evacuation trains from Sloviansk.Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 10 humanitarian corridors for people from besieged regions have been agreed, Reuters reports. This includes one for people evacuating by private transport from the city of Mariupol, Vereshchuk said.
  • 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 reorganised 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
  • Mariupol – still 100,000 people are trapped and need to be evacuated. More than 5,000 civilians, including 210 children, have been killed in Mariupol since the start of Russia’s invasion, the mayor of the besieged city said. Mayor Vadym Boichenko said 90% of the city’s infrastructure has been destroyed
  • 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 – 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, meaning incredible pressure is on Russia to achieve victory by then.

Pray Points – Continued

  • 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
    • Military Aid – High Altitude Missiles
    • Evacuation – Mariupol
    • 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