Russia and Ukraine’s war in light of the end times (1)
Even someone like myself who hardly follows the mainstream news anymore has known for quite some time that Russia invaded the Ukraine. I know this only because everywhere I go I am asked to deposit money into an account to help Ukraine.
The western part of Ukraine where the battle is taking place would like to join the West. The eastern part would rather not. This invasion, Vladimir Putin’s explanation is to protect the people of the eastern part, who would like to remain under the influence of Russia.
Who wants to belong to Russia?
Now, no one in the West can imagine that anyone with common sense would prefer to belong to Russia, rather than Europe, so no one here believes Putin who is portrayed as a ruthless dictator who wants to restore Russia’s Soviet-era power. The idea is also told, that when he is done with the Ukraine, he will attack the other countries in Eastern Europe and then he will want to conquer Western Europe as well. In order to achieve his goal, he will go over the dead bodies of mostly small children and civilians. This is, of course, terrible, but is it? We might be used to this image after so many years of Western journalism: Muammar Gaddafi, Bashar al-Assad, Saddam Hussein, Netanyahu, Donald Trump and every leader wrong by “Western” standards have been consistently portrayed as torturers of children.
When children are involved, you don’t ask questions
Reports that civilian children are being victimized should not be questioned so asking those questions of the ‘official’ reading of what is going on in the Ukraine is dismissed (and here we go again) as spreading fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories. If this list of meaningless accusations was already known from the Corona era, now even country traitor has been added. Klaveren, the leader of the Green Left, even called for the PVV and FvD to be excluded from strategic discussions because they could pass on information to Russia. He even wanted to investigate whether those parties were not receiving money from Russia. After all, in his experience, it is impossible not to portray Putin as an executioner in the category of Hitler, Stalin, Mao or Pol Pot without restraint and without questions. This is no small hypocrisy since Upper House member for the Green Left Paul Rosenmöller has never been called on the fact that he was a big fan of communist leaders like Mao and Pol Pot, each of whom had millions of deaths on their conscience.
Who trusts the news anymore?
It is difficult for us laymen to know what is really going on in the Ukraine. The Western governments and their news media proved to be two hands on one during the corona crisis the last two years about what we were supposed to find and believe. So how can we trust them now about what is going on. Despite the fact that the Western sanctions could well lead to food shortages, everyone supports every action against Russia, and hangs on the tube daily to feast on the governments propaganda.
Isn’t Ukraine in charge of its own policies?
But then, as a sovereign country, shouldn’t Ukraine decide for itself whether to join NATO or not? There is something to be said for that, but in the balance of power in the world, things are a little more complicated. Suppose that Russia starts negotiations with Morocco, Venezuela, Mexico or Canada to place Russian air force bases there, how would Europe and America react to that?
If Ukraine joins NATO it is a matter of time before there will indeed be air force bases and missile installations in that country on Russia’s border. For this reason, Russia always said after the fall of the wall that it would never accept it if Ukraine joined NATO and NATO promised not to do so either. We experienced a similar situation in 1962. The older ones among us will remember the Cuban crisis of that year. The trigger was that Russia wanted to place nuclear missiles on Cuba during the cold war. There was no European or American at the time who thought that Cuba, as a sovereign country, should be able to decide that for itself. The world was on the verge of war when President Kennedy issued an ultimatum to get rid of the missiles.
How will this play out?
How this war between Russia and Ukraine will develop is difficult to say. Wars are capricious phenomena and the outcome difficult to predict: When June 28, 1914, the Austrian heir to the throne Archduke Franz-Ferdinand was assassinated, no one would have thought or wanted that World War I would break out as a result either. This war now between Russia and the Ukraine may also take an unexpected and very unpleasant turn. Having a completely unaccountable and incompetent president at the helm in America does not contribute to a safer world.
Russia and the prophecies
After this brief introduction, I do not want to go deeply into the political background of Russia’s conflict with Ukraine. What I do want to do is look at the prophetic significance. Indeed, the Bible speaks of Russia’s role in the days before Jesus returns. Since many of them (like myself) believe that we are living in that time, quite a few Bible interpreters see this war as an extension of that. How about this?