Dear Friends and Partners,
Here is our mid-month war update – our regular prayer letter comes out within the first half of each month. Similar to last month, the Donbass region (that is just south of our city of Kharkiv) remains in heavy fighting. Since our last update, the Russian military has made advances and forced the Ukrainian military to withdraw from parts of the Dontesk and Lugansk regions. More and more weaponry from the west continues to pour into the eastern part of the country and I have heard that the Ukrainians have been able to stand their ground in recent weeks - but honestly, I don’t know if this is Ukrainian propaganda or not. Ukraine believes that almost 39,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, but it is unknown how many Ukrainians have lost their lives since the beginning of this war. The governor of Lugansk region has said, “Anything that can burn is on fire!”
In our city of Kharkiv, it is the same story every day: constant shelling from Russian artillery, missiles hitting all across the city, and bombs. Many of the missiles come from launchers that are behind the Russian border. Since our last update, 60 civilians have been killed and an additional 158 people have been injured. Every day the city and our entire region becomes more destroyed; it is a tragic situation.
There are reports of many wheat fields being targeted by the Russian miliary and causing crops to be burned up. The US Think Tank believes that Russian wants to annex our Kharkiv region, if they continue to make advances in the east.
To make matters worse, the United Nations reported about two weeks ago that 16 million people within Ukraine are at risk of being hungry. And on June 8th, the UN stated that globally over a billion people are at risk with food insecurity due to the war. The headline was, “War in Ukraine threatens to unleash ‘unprecedented wave’ of global hunger and destitution, warns UN Chief.”
When I spoke to our ministry partners, all of them are seeing about a 75% reduction of food and supplies from the west to help feed people in our region. I have noticed that since the beginning of the war our own donations are down 80%. We have already spent over 90% of our Kharkiv budget and it is only July!
On a positive note, if you remember pastor Sasha Salfyetnikov, who was tortured by the Russians, has made it to Poland. He and his wife are alive! I will share more, when I receive more news. Thank you for your prayers!
Here is our link if you would like to financially support our ministry efforts in and around Kharkiv, Ukraine and orphans and refugees in Romania, Poland, Germany, and Spain:
slavicchristian.org/donate
Our prayer requests:
1) Please pray for the war to end;
2) Please pray that people will not starve in the months ahead;
3) Continue to pray for our ministry partner’s safety as they travel and distribute food and supplies;
4) Please pray for our finances that are down 80% since the beginning of the war.
I have included a few ministry photos below. Thank you again for your prayers and support; God bless you in every way!
Ron
Ron Putnam