According to Kyiv Post, this is a NASA photo of Europe on Nov 23, 2022. You can see that Ukraine is almost in complete darkness, compared to the rest of Europe.
Dear Friends and Partners,
Here is monthly war update – our regular prayer letter will be released around Christmas updating you with photos of how your donations have helped with the heating units. I will also update you on our Christmas outreach within two churches in mid-January.
While most of the recent Ukrainian news hasn’t focused on our area of Kharkiv (in the far east of Ukraine), Russia continues to send missiles and artillery shells in our region almost every day. The intensity of the attacks has lessened, but much damage has already been caused by the incessant raining of shells and missiles over the past 9.5 months. In Kharkiv, Russia has used artillery shells and S-300 missiles to destroy critical infrastructure. The S-300 is a surface to air missile, with a range of about 90-200 miles. Each warhead has about 300 pounds of explosives.
With the Ukrainians scouring every area of the Kharkiv region, which they took back from the Russian occupiers a couple of months ago, another 700 tortured dead bodies were recently discovered.
As of December 8, 2022, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets of Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office, remarked that Russia's war against Ukraine has killed 443 children, injuring almost 900 more kids, and another 330 little souls are still missing and unaccounted for to date. These numbers don’t include the thousands (if not tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands) of women and children that have been forcefully removed from Ukraine and sent to Russia against their will.
Most of the news these days, concentrates on Russia’s brutal tactics of destroying the Ukrainian power infrastructure across the country, including our region of Kharkiv. The Kyiv Independent reported on December 9, 2022 that since October 10th, 2022, there have been at least twenty waves of rocket attacks across the country, with over 1,000 missiles and drones being launched against Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure.
Ukrenergo Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the director of Ukraine's energy power grid, reported that nearly all of Ukraine’s thermal power plants had suffered damage. There are rolling blackouts across many regions of Ukraine, and as you can see from the photo above, due to the country having very little electricity. Most of the electricity, water, and heating infrastructure has been destroyed. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klistchko, warns of a “winter apocalypse.”
Our ministry partners are feverishly working to provide the heating units to as many people as possible. Thanks to your help, Slavic Christian Ministries has sent $22,000 as of December 12, 2022, with another $2,000 being deployed next week – all for heating units, generators, and anything we can get our hands on to keep people warm and alive. Between now and the end of February, we are trying to raise as much money as possible for additional heating units and generators. I wish we were as big as some other huge ministries, but we do the best we can, thanks to your help!
The news reported in recent days that Germany is sending or has already sent 620 mega generators, with the European Commission adding an additional 40 generators. Apparently, these are large enough to help hospitals remain open.
You have been very instrumental in helping our ministry partners buy generators, heating units, firewood, make-ship wood stoves, sleeping bags, etc. Thank you so much! We have decided to continue to raise money for heating supplies through February 2023 since the needs are unsurmountable! Below is our link if you would like to financially support our ministry efforts in and around Kharkiv.
slavicchristian.org/donate
Our prayer requests:
1) Please pray for the war to end and the loss of life will end;
2) Please pray that people will not freeze in the months ahead;
3) Please pray for our ministry partner’s safety as they distribute food, supplies and heating units;
4) Please pray that we will raise $100,000 more for heating units in the next couple of months.
Thank you again for your gracious giving and prayers!
In Jesus’ love,
Ron