Ukraine Prayer # 538

Ira Kapitonova
Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers!
Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!”
Let them be put to shame and dishonor
who seek after my life!
Let them be turned back and disappointed
who devise evil against me!
Psalm 35:3-4
Today, I came across an opinion piece by Yaroslav Zubchenko of the Strategic Communications Department of the Ukrainian Army. It is written about Kharkiv, and it touches my heart even though I visited Kharkiv only once. At the same time, I feel that very similar words can be written about Chernihiv or Sumy or Zaporizhzhia or many other cities I have never visited before, and only God knows if they will stand for me to see them after the war.
The opinion piece can be found at the link (https://t.ly/ObZx2), but I will share a few quotes:
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"On their own, Kharkiv’s struggles turn into its routine. After the Russian shelling, not a single operating electrical substation was left in the city populated by over a million before the full-scale war. Tens or even hundreds of thousands of people must take turns cooking, climb the stairs to the upper floors, take care of themselves, and raise their children in the dark. Is this why our partners and allies can’t see it?"
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"The number of Kharkiv residents is equivalent to Barcelona. In terms of its area, Kharkiv could accommodate about three Paris cities. All of Hungary has only twice as many universities as Kharkiv alone. And when missiles hit this city, they hit cultural landmarks of national importance, like the Slovo House, where the poets of the Executed Renaissance lived. One hundred years later the same executioners come back."
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"Today, however, the situation looks like an apartment from which strangers can hear screams, but no one wants to look into the window. Except that in Kharkiv, each shelling breaks out eight hundred windows at a time."
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Please pray for Kharkiv, they are under attack presently.

Al Akimoff and the Slavic Ministries Team
 
Today's picture – smoke rises above the houses after a Russian military strike on Kharkiv. March 22, 2024. Photo by Suspilne