July 6, 2022

Praise Reports

Success

  • Donetsk – Explosions at Azotny district in Donetsk
  • Kherson – Ukrainian military destroyed Russian Military warehouses near railway station in Kherson. Also huge explosions reported at a military base in Kyselivka, just a km from the front.
  • Mikolaiv – Ukrainian military shot down 2 Russian Kalibr missiles over Mykolaiv region
  • Kryvyi Rih – Russian offensive attempt near Lozove failed which indicates that Ukrainian forces likely either reestablished a bridgehead at Lozove at an unspecified previous date or have consistently maintained the one they established in early June. This report is the first mention by Ukrainian officials of control of terrain on the left bank of the Inhulets River near Davydiv Brid

Truth Revealed

  • Russian Repairs – According to intelligence, since the large-scale invasion, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have deactivated more than 40% of the combat-ready tanks, BMPs and APCs sent from Russia’s Southern Military District. The equipment needs to be sent to repair facilities to be repaired, but on the way, the soldiers make life considerably more difficult for the specialists. Soldiers remove all the valuable equipment in order to sell it or exchange it for alcohol. For this reason, the Russian military leadership decided to strengthen control over the movement of armored vehicles to repair plants. In their turn, the heads of the defense companies gave orders not to accept damaged hardware. Such a decision is argued by the lack of components and funds received for work already done. The initiative to create repair brigades to restore armored vehicles near the border did not help either.
  • Oligarch – Yuri Voronov, CEO of the transport and logistics company Astra-Shipping, was found dead in the Morskie Terrasy cottage settlement in the Leningrad Region. Voronov was found in the pool with a gunshot wound to the head. A traumatic pistol lay next to him. According to preliminary data from forensic experts, the shot was fired point-blank. Over the past six months, this is the fourth death of a top manager associated with Gazprom.
  • Russian Mobilization – More than 130 days into Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” against Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry is apparently counting on prison inmates and shipyard workers to serve as fresh cannon fodder. The desperate new recruiting drive has been reported in St. Petersburg, where the families of inmates at two prisons say the Wagner Group—a private Russian military force that has been tied to the Kremlin—is offering prisoners money and a get-out-of-jail-free card to go “search for Nazis” in Ukraine. “They told my relative, ‘It’s very hard to find the Nazis there, and they are very well-prepared. You will be at the forefront in helping to detect Nazis, so not everyone will return.’ At first they said about 20 percent would come back. Then that ‘almost nobody will return.’ Those who survive are promised 200,000 rubles and amnesty. And if someone dies, they promise to pay their family 5 million rubles. This is all only in words, nothing is fixed on paper,” an unnamed relative of one of the inmates told the outlet. At least 40 inmates signed up to join the war at that prison, the relative said. The inmates, after being urged to “defend the motherland,” were reportedly told it would look like they were being transferred but they’d be dropped off at the border with Ukraine. “Wagner is recruiting people. No one is hiding that, the [prison foremen] are saying that directly,” the inmate’s relative said.Family members of another inmate who agreed to join the war told iStories he’d done so because he genuinely believed he’d have his conviction expunged and be free upon his return. But it seems the recruiters aren’t really expecting any of the inmates to make it back alive: Relatives of an inmate at a separate prison said the men were told they’d be sent into the war without any identification documents.
  • Russian Nuclear Shield – The Russian army is transforming Europe’s largest nuclear power plant into a military base overlooking an active front, intensifying a monthslong safety crisis for the vast facility and its thousands of staff. At the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine, more than 500 Russian soldiers who seized the plant in March have in recent weeks deployed heavy artillery batteries and laid anti-personnel mines along the shores of the reservoir whose water cools its six reactors, according to workers. Russian authorities intend to restaff the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) with Russian employees, likely mostly from Rosenergoatom. The Ukrainian Resistance Center claimed that Russian authorities intend to disconnect the NPP from the Ukrainian power grid by the end of September, which indicates that Russian authorities intend to fully divert Ukrainian energy to the Russian Federation.
  • Russian Goals – Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev stated on July 5 that the Russian military operation in Ukraine will continue until Russia achieves its goals of protecting civilians from “genocide,” “denazifying” and demilitarizing Ukraine, and obliging Ukraine to be permanently neutral between Russia and NATO—almost exactly restating the goals Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in his February 24 speech justifying the war. Putin had stated that the operation aimed to protect civilians from humiliation and genocide, demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, and prosecute genocidal perpetrators. Patrushev’s explicit restatement of Putin‘s initial objectives, nearly five months later, strongly indicates that the Kremlin does not consider recent Russian gains in Luhansk Oblast sufficient to accomplish the initial goals of the “special operation,” supporting ISW’s ongoing assessment that the Kremlin has significant territorial aspirations beyond the Donbas. Patrushev’s statement suggests that Russian military leadership will continue to push for advances outside Donetsk and Luhansk blasts and that the Kremlin is preparing for a protracted war with the intention of taking much larger portions of Ukraine. Russia’s stated objectives in its invasion of Ukraine remain regime change in Kyiv and the truncation of the sovereignty of any Ukrainian state that survives the Russian attack despite Russian military setbacks and rhetoric hinting at a reduction in war aims following those defeats. This seems a response to Girkin criticism of Putin and the Kremlin, where he has claimed that the capture of “Novorossiya” is the bare minimum and that Russian goals will be realized through the total capture of “Malorossiya,” which is an invocation of the Russian imperial concept for almost all Ukrainian territory.
  • Chechen Goals – The Chechen allies of President Vladimir Putin have vowed to continue fighting in Ukraine, saying they would even go beyond the country, until the president stops them. “There should be no doubt: The DPR [the Donetsk People’s Republic — a pro-Russian breakaway region], Mykolaiv, Kherson, Odesa, until Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin stops us. Inshallah [God willing] we’ll get to Berlin,” Chechen Parliament speaker Magomed Daudov told reporters.
  • Russian Conscription – ussian forces have intensified conscription practices to provide more manpower for the 2nd Army Corps (forces of the Luhansk People’s Republic), which likely suffered considerable losses during protracted operations for control of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk. The Ukrainian Resistance Center also stated that Russian authorities are preparing for conscription in Berdyansk by ordering building managers to provide lists of conscription-aged residents. Russian authorities will likely continue to set conditions for conscription in occupied territories to renew combat capabilities.
  • Grain – the Russian-backed head of the Zaporizhia occupation administration, Yevheny Balytskyi, stated that occupation authorities in Zaporizhia Oblast have agreed to export Ukrainian grain to Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq. Balytskyi claimed that the administration will export over 150,000 tons of grain to Iran alone. The office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine asked the Turkish authorities to check three ships under the Russian flag, which could be transporting grain from the occupied Ukrainian territories. In a letter sent by Ukrainian prosecutors to the Turkish Ministry of Justice on June 13, dry cargo ships Mikhail Nenashev, Matros Pozynich and Matros Koshka, owned by a subsidiary of the Russian United Shipbuilding Corporation, are mentioned. In April-May, ships left the main grain terminal of the Crimea in the port of Sevastopol, while two of them turned off the trackers. The prosecutor general’s office requested documentation from Ankara about their cargo and arrival at Turkish ports. Kyiv believes that dry cargo ships may contain grain exported from the occupied Kherson region.
  • Russian/Belorussian Partisans – After the start of the war with Ukraine in Russia, accidents on the railway also became more frequent. The Insider has calculated that, according to media reports, 63 freight trains derailed in different regions from March to June. This is almost one and a half times more than in the same period last year. Accidents occurred mainly in the west and southwest of the Russian Federation, sometimes near military units. One such case was the damage to a railway bridge in the border area of the Belgorod region in April. In June, RZD-Partner magazine wrote , citing Goszheldornadzor, that more than 55% of freight train accidents in the past four months were related to the state of the railway tracks. After the start of the war, people who called themselves members of the “Combat Organization of Anarcho-Communists” (BOAC) began to publish instructions on how to arrange railway accidents on Telegram and talked about their own successful “operations”. They took responsibility not only for sabotage with trains, but also for setting fire to military registration and enlistment offices, cell towers, and cars of pro-government activists. The BOAC has become “the most active ‘subversive’ force” in Russia since the start of the war. Members of the BOAC, who were contacted by the correspondent of the publication, said that the organization had existed for several years, but declared itself publicly only after the start of the war. The idea of sabotage on the railway arose after the start of the “rail war” in Belarus. “Railway sabotage is a relatively simple and highly effective way to inflict damage on an enemy army. Moreover, with minimal risk to civilians, if executed correctly. <…> All this can seriously weaken the armed forces of Russia and have an impact on how soon the war will end,” the BOAC said.
  • Russian Occupation – Russian authorities have failed to find enough collaborators to form an occupation government in Kherson Oblast and are therefore installing officials directly from Russia. This claim is consistent with previous reports that proxy leadership in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) has imported several Russian public administration officials to the DNR government to shape its policies under a Russian framework. Despite the number of Ukrainian collaborators in Kherson Oblast, Russian occupation authorities likely prefer Russian officials in administrative roles to align occupied areas with the Russian system on an administrative level. This phenomenon may indicate that the Russians are preparing to annex the occupied territories directly to the Russian Federation rather than establishing one or more independent statelets.
  • Israel – The Russian authorities demanded that the Jewish Agency for Israel (“Sohnut”) stop its activities in the country. The Jewish Agency for Israel is an international organization whose main task is to assist in repatriation to Israel. She also deals with issues related to the global Jewish community. Relations between Russia and Israel have cooled against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine. On July 4, Moscow also condemned Israeli airstrikes on the border regions of Syria, calling them “categorically unacceptable” – before that, the Russian Federation refrained from criticizing such actions.

Support

  • HIMARS – Forbes Mackenzie of Mackenzie, former British Intelligence Officer while giving an overall analysis of the Ukraine’s military situation in the wake of the retreat from Lysyschansk, he indicated what a game-changer the 8 HIMARS systems the US had donated had been and estimated it would take 54 of them to effectively counter the Russian attacks.
  • Ireland – Taoiseach Micheál Martin has witnessed the devastation inflicted by Russian forces in the war-scarred suburbs of Borodianka, Bucha and Irpin while on a visit to Ukraine to reiterate his country’s solidarity with Kyiv. Martin began his visit today with a trip to Borodianka, where he met the town’s mayor and viewed apartment blocks gutted by fire during the Russian shelling. He will restate Ireland’s full backing for continuing sanctions against Russia and for Ukraine’s path to full EU membership.
  • Austria – has begun the process of ejecting the Russian energy company Gazprom from its major gas storage facility at Haidach.
  • EU – The EU chief accused Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, of using energy as a weapon in an address to lawmakers in Strasbourg today. The commission is working on a “European emergency plan” with the first proposals to be presented by the middle of the month, she said. Von der Leyen said: “If worst comes to worst, then we have to be prepared.” She stressed the importance of having a European overview and coordinated approach “to a potential complete cut-off of Russian gas”.

Pray Points – Latest

  • Slovyansk – The governor of the Donetsk region has also urged 350,000 civilians to evacuate in light of an imminent Russian offensive. Pavlo Kyrylenko said that getting people out is necessary to save lives and to enable the Ukrainian army to better defend towns from the Russian advance. The battle for Sloviansk is likely to be the next key contest in the struggle for Donbas as Russian forces approach within 16km of the Donetsk town, the UK Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday. Russian forces from the eastern and western groups of forces are likely now around 16km north of Sloviansk as central and southern groups of forces also pose a threat to the town, according to the latest British intelligence report.
  • China – China is willing to deepen cooperation with Russia within multilateral frameworks including the G20, the Chinese vice-foreign minister, Ma Zhaoxu, told the Russian ambassador to China, Andrey Denisov.
  • Bakhmut – Klynove, 8 km East of Bakhmut, has fallen to the Russian invasion army Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov noted that Russian forces around Bakhmut have a distinct advantage in terms of force and means. Gromov stated that Russian forces are conducting operations towards Soledar, which lies just northeast of Bakhmut along the T0513 Bakhmut-Siversk highway, and suggests that Russian forces additionally seek to interdict Ukrainian lines of communication along the T0513.
  • Lysychansk – Ukraine has withdrawn. Russia will shift the main focus of its war in Ukraine to trying to seize all of the Donetsk region after capturing neighbouring Luhansk, the Luhansk region’s governor Serhai Haidai has said. He claimed about 8,000 civilians remain in occupied Sievierodonetsk and about 10,000 in newly occupied Lysychansk. “We maintain the defense of a small part of Luhansk region so that our military has time to build defences.”
  • Donetsk – Serhiy Gaidai said in an interview that he expected the city of Sloviansk and the town of Bakhmut in particular to come under attack as Russia tries to take full control of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.
  • Odessa – two enemy missile carriers, with more than a dozen cruise missiles on board, continue to be present in the northwestern part of the Black Sea, posing a threat of strikes across Ukraine. “Three large landing craft have joined them. Not feeling protected, they keep a safe distance from the Ukrainian coast,” the military added.
  • Belarus – Lukashenka claims Ukrainian military attempted to strike military installations in Belarus, but all missiles were intercepted. Says now Belarusian missiles aimed to “centers of decision making against Belarus.” Lukashenka says that Minsk doesn’t want to take part in the war in Ukraine. Says Putin doesn’t use nuclear blackmail. Says Minsk and Moscow should be ready to respond to “aggressive actions by the West” in 24 hours
  • Belgorod – At least three people were killed and dozens of homes damaged by blasts in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukraine border, the regional governor said on Sunday, while Ukrainian forces struck a Russian military base in occupied southern Ukraine. At least 11 apartment buildings and 39 houses were damaged, including five that were destroyed, Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app. Senior Russian lawmaker Andrei Klishas accused Ukraine of shelling Belgorod and called for a stern response. “The death of civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Belgorod are a direct act of aggression on the part of Ukraine and require the most severe – including a military – response,” Klishas wrote on Telegram. The Ukrainian Armed Forces launched a “deliberate strike” on residential areas of Belgorod with three Tochka-U ballistic missiles with cluster munitions, the Russian Defense Ministry said. According to the department, all the missiles were destroyed by air defense systems, but fragments of one of them fell on a residential building. “Also, Russian air defense systems destroyed two Tu-143 Reis Ukrainian reactive unmanned aerial vehicles stuffed with explosives on their way to Kursk,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a briefing. According to him, the missile strike was “purposefully planned and carried out against the peaceful civilian population of Russian cities.”
  • Logistics – Konstiantyn Nemichev, stated that Ukrainian forces will use US-provided HIMARS rocket artillery systems to disrupt Russian Ground Lines of Communication or GLOCs running through Vovchansk, Kupyansk, and Izyum. Kupyansk is a significant logistical hub for Russian forces operating on the Kharkiv axis and is located approximately 50km from the frontline. Vovchansk lies approximately 15-20 km from the frontline, but Russian operations in northern Kharkiv have prevented Ukrainian forces from targeting Vovchansk with indirect fire thus far. Russian GLOCs to Izyum are the most exposed, approximately 15km east of the nearest frontline, and NASA FIRMS heat anomaly detection has observed heat anomalies consistent with indirect fire attacks in wooded areas west of Izyum in recent weeks. Most Russian major ammunition depots and support stations along the Kharkiv axis would be within the range of HIMARS systems that would cover the Kharkiv axis.
  • Kharkiv – Located 25 miles from the Russian border, Kharkiv has great strategic importance as the gateway to the east of Ukraine. Russia tried to conquer it during the first week of the war, sending columns of tanks and military police units towards the city. Apart from a short lull some three weeks ago, Russia’s relentless shelling of the city, coming mostly out of the Russian border town of Belgorod, never stopped, destroying more than 2,000 buildings and killing more than 900 civilians in the process, according to the regional governor, Oleh Synehubov. Over the last two weeks, the city has seen some of the heaviest bombardments since the start of the war, and there are fears among senior Ukrainian officials, as well as local military heads, that a renewed Russian offensive is looming. The Russians usually start with rocket attacks, then heavy artillery comes in, and then they move in with tanks and infantry. We see the first part already happening,” Andrey Mogyla, a Ukrainian soldier, said. Equally concerning, according to Mogyla, were the recent bits of intelligence from “western partners” that his team received, including satellite images that showed Russia massing new troops and military hardware on the frontlines near Kharkiv. According to Mogyla, about 100 army units, including 50 tanks and eight battalions, were moved there three weeks ago on the eastern side of Kharkiv near the Russian-occupied village of Shevchenkove.
  • Kherson – Russian military detained Kherson mayor Ihor Kolykhaev. Meanwhile Russian authorities continued to take measures to strengthen the economic integration of occupied areas into Russian systems on June 27. First Deputy Head of the Kherson Oblast Council Yury Sobolevskyi stated on June 26 that Russian authorities are opening the first branch of the Russian state-backed Promsvyazbank in Kherson Oblast. Sobolevskyi added that Russian authorities are distributing one-time 10,000-ruble payments to ”almost everyone” to foster economic reliance on the ruble economy. Ukraine’s Southern Operational Command additionally reported that Russian authorities in Kherson City are seizing banking institutions and issuing Russian salary cards to those working in enterprises that have been co-opted by Russian occupation authorities. Such actions are likely intended to force occupied areas to become increasingly reliant on the ruble, stimulating long term integration into the Russian economy.
  • Drones – Ukrainian forces have largely halted the use of Turkish Bayraktar drones, which were used to great effect earlier in the war, due to improvements in Russian air-defense capabilities. Ukrainian officials are reportedly increasingly concerned that US-provided Gray Eagle strike drones will also be shot down by reinforced Russian air defense over the Donbas.
  • Weapons – Pray for the German, French and Italian leaders today to bring to Kiev heavy weapons and not pressure to concede to Russian demands.
  • Mariupol – Only 3% of Mariupol residents have access to water, according to the Russian-occupied southern Ukrainian city’s mayoral adviser, Petro Andriushchenko. Residents are being forced to take water everywhere, “including sewage wells”, Andriushchenko said. There are no doctors left in the city, he said, leaving more than 100,000 people without healthcare and medication. Mayor Vadim Boychenko, the administration said “more than 100,000 people who still remain in the city do not have access to drinking water. Currently, the occupiers provide it once a week.  Residents stand in line for 4-8 hours.  They are on the verge of death.  This is a humanitarian catastrophe.  Therefore, we must do everything possible to open a green corridor and save people,” the mayor said. He added that Russians and “collaborators” had also restricted residents’ access to food.  “At the same time, the city is left without gas, light and drainage system.” Now there is a major outbreak of cholera as the officials of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) continue to fail to provide the residents of Mariupol with basic social services or quality-of-life assurances. Advisor to the Mayor of Mariupol Petro Andryushchenko stated that DNR authorities are unable to provide water, humanitarian aid, or medical services to residents and that corruption amongst DNR collaborators is further complicating the situation. Head of the DNR Denis Pushilin stated that his priority is restoring the school system in Mariupol despite continual administrative failures to provide even the most basic food and water services.
  • Izyum/Slovyansk – Russian forces continued to prepare to advance on Slovyansk from southeast of Izyum and west of Lyman. Right now Ukrainian forces are likely conducting a counteroffensive northwest of Izyum intended to draw Russian forces away from offensive operations toward Slovyansk and disrupt Russian supply lines and are making minor gains.
  • Russian Navy – Ukraine’s Southern Operational Command additionally reported that Russian forces are restructuring their naval grouping to include more submarines, which is a likely response to successful Ukrainian attacks on Russian naval assets in the Black Sea.
  • Zaporozhia – Russia is repositioning forces to reinforce the front here.
  • Navalny – on June 21, the Russian opposition leader has been moved secretly prison IK-2 in Pokrov, 100km to the northeast of Moscow without notifying any of his people or supporters of where he is being taken. Alexei Navalny said in May that he could be transferred to the maximum security colony IK-6 in Melehovo in the Vladimir region. “My sentence has not yet entered into force, but the prisoners from the strict regime colony Melehovo (another 150 km further to the east) write that they are equipping a “prison within a prison” for me,” Navalny said.
  • Casualties – Approximately 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia’s invasion of the country in February, according to a military adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He added that the daily numbers of Ukrainian casualties were around “200 to 300 die, no less.”
  • Donbas – Shelling continues incessantly
  • POWs – Occupation authorities in parts of Donetsk region of Ukraine sentenced POWs, Britons Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48 and citizen of Morocco Saadun Bragim to death. All three were charged under the articles of the Criminal Code of the DPR “Forcible seizure of power or forcible retention of power” and “Mercenary”. According to Alexander Nikulin , presiding in the court, the convicts pleaded guilty to all charges. They have a month to appeal the court’s decision. All three intend to appeal. One of the lawyers for the convicts, Pavel Kosovan, said that, most likely, foreigners would ask the head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, for a pardon. UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has said the men are entitled to combatant immunity as prisoners of war. “The judgement against them is an egregious breach of the Geneva convention,” Truss said. “The UK continues to back Ukraine against Putin’s barbaric invasion.” In addition, two former US Marines from Alabama were captured near Kharkiv, Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 29, and the Kremlin has indicated they will treat them in the same way, as mercenaries.
  • People of the West – pray that they rise up against their governments and demand they back Ukraine with more than words and do NOT negotiate with Russia, giving Putin land for grain or a ceasefire, rather than a military tribunal for him and the other war criminals.
  • Ukrainian Prisoners of War – There are about 8,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war held in the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, the Luhansk official Rodion Miroshnik has said.
  • Unity – there are movements beginning with Ukraine to begin to blame various people and parties for Ukraine’s situation, attempting to create division calling for various people to be charged with corruption, rather than waiting till after the war. Former president Petroshenko’s party in retaliation for the difficulties he’s had leaving the country to negotiate with the Lithuanians last week, has called for an investigation into why Zelensky and his party did not prepare better for the invasion.
  • Melitopol – there is a huge partisan movement among the people in this reason and they have taken out many railroad bridges and trains.
  • Ruble – the Russian currency is surging to 7-year highs, that although artificial indicate that funds are flowing into Russia rapidly (as Europe attempts to refill stockpiles and India and other companies take advantage of discounted oil) meaning that Russia is being kept afloat.
  • EU – Hungary continues to block a true oil embargo
  • IMF – The head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, has said the war in Ukrainehas darkened the outlook for the global economy and could result in recession for more vulnerable countries and predicted that 2022 would be a tough year and declined to rule out a global recession if conditions worsened markedly.
  • Zaporozhia/Kryvyi Rih/Kherson – Shelling continues as the Russians attempt to move forward and Russia has blocked all exit from these regions as people line up at the borders
  • Kherson – Russia is stopping humanitarian aid from reaching hundreds of thousands of people in the region of Kherson, Ukraine said. Doctors could run out of medicine for chronically ill patients in two weeks, a Ukrainian official said. As they implement a ruble zone here it only increases the lack as people do not have rubles to purchase the need supplies.
  • NATO – Even as Finland and Sweden apply to join along, Turkey continues to veto it even as negotiations continue
  • Russian Navy – Russian Navy – All operating submarines of the Russian Black Sea Fleet went to sea from Sevastopol as seen by the fact that they are targeting military installations in Lviv
  • Fuel – Russia continues to strike fuel refineries and stores (including in Lviv yesterday) destroying its Ukrainian production capacity and fuel tanks, continuing to create dangerously low availability of fuel, meaning much of Ukraine’s economy and food supply could be affected, but also the military and humanitarian aid distribution.
  • Food – prices soar 60% as India, the world’s second largest producer, blocks exports due to low harvest from heat wave. Pray for the world food supplies as Wheat make up 15% of all the worlds calories consumed. And much higher for impoverished countries. Ukraine produces 7% of the worlds wheat and Russia 11% meaning 3% of the entire food supply for the world is cut off, and again a much higher percentage for developing world. While corn makes up 19.5% of global calories and Ukraine produces 2.6% and Russia with 2.3% of world supplies, meaning a further decrease in 1% of the world calorie intake for a total between wheat and corn of 4%. A response to this is that “the Russian invasion is a large shock for agricultural commodity markets, but not historically large. Markets and trade patterns will adjust to absorb it. Farmers around the world will produce more and consumers will cut back or substitute. The transition may be difficult in some places, especially countries such as Egypt that typically rely on wheat from Russia and Ukraine who must be helped to find alternate suppliers. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has warned of “a hurricane of hunger” if Ukrainian grain is not exported. The world’s 41 least-developed nations import a third of their wheat from Ukraineand Russia. Soaring food prices have already driven inflation levels in Egypt to the highest level since mid-2019.
  • Russian Military – trying to create panic among the Ukrainian civilian population and to disrupt the supply lines in the rear, but has minimum success on the battlefield.
  • Mines – Almost half of the territory of Ukraine needs humanitarian demining – this is about 300,000 square kilometers, according to the State Emergency Service. Every day, an average of 2,000 to 6,000 explosive items are seized and rendered harmless in the country. One day of active hostilities is equal to 30 days of demining. For example, it will take about a year and a half to clear mines in the Kyiv region, where the fighting lasted a month. “Spring is coming, overgrown with grass, and in a week explosive devices cannot be installed visually, only devices. A few months later, due to rains, they sink underground to a depth of 3-5-7 centimeters, they are not visible at all, but they are still working,” the minister said. (As a sign of what supernatural resolutions can be possible, but during the Vietnam War, the United States strategically placed mines in North Vietnamese waters area that were set to detonate when a ship was in close proximity. In August 1972, a large number of these magnetic mines simultaneously started exploding. Upon investigation, the US found out that the cause of these explosions, which were estimated to be as many as 4,000, were not enemy ships. As it turned out, the culprit was a powerful historical series of solar storms with an extreme solar flare, solar particle events, and geomagnetic storm components hit the Earth.)
  • Testing the West – multiple alternative narratives are being focus-grouped by politicians – Like assuming Russia taking half of Ukraine is a done deal. Or turning Ukraine into Cyprus – divided state with Chinese soldiers occupying
  • Narrative – probing attacks from many directions in the media and with politicians continue as they attempt to discover a way to distract, divide or dissuade support for Ukraine and for Russia’s total expulsion from Ukraine and for Russian government to be held accountable. Continue to pray for solidarity and truth and those in occupied territories who are suffering and/or have been deported will be heard and not forgotten or abandoned.
  • Social Media – Russia’s online trolling operation is becoming increasingly decentralised and is gaining “incredible traction” on TikTok with misinformation aimed at sowing doubt over events in Ukraine, a US social media researcher has warned.
  • PTSD – they are seeing that those fleeing the Russians are holding on for about 10 days and then face complete mental breakdown.
  • 6 Russian Key Objectives to Pray Against
    • Kharkiv – Destroy, Encircle, Capture
    • Izyum – push south to encircle Donbas
    • Slavyonsk and Kramatorsk – in the east to complete a smaller encirclement of the cities
    • Mariupol – completely destroy all opposition and export the populations
    • Zaporozhye – Russian troops are building up forces and building logistics a massive concerted attack
    • 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.
  • Occupied Conscription – there is much evidence that Russia is desperately attempting to catch and conscript any and all able men in the occupied regions of Izyum, Kherson & Zaporozhye and force them to fight for them.
  • Deportations – Russia has deported over 750,000 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 6.5 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.
  • 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
    • Sanctions – Loopholes would be closed and sanctions rendered effective
    • Oil Embargo – That Europe would make the choice to stop immediately at the very least paying for gas & oil
    • 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