For Ukraine

Today has been a rather emotional day. Some celebrations for the bronze medal in the Curling, a very funny presentation at Camera Club from wonderful photographer Leigh Preston, and a busy day at work, but behind it all I was keeping a very close eye on the news from Ukraine.

I've visited that beautiful country a number of times, when I worked in Russia I attended conferences there and met folk from across the country. I have stood on Independence Square (maidan is Ukrainian for square) and taken photos of the fountain and the surrounding buildings, including the glassed off graffiti left as a monument to the Orange Revolution 9 years ago. Folk I knew back then have been sharing their experiences and thoughts on the Euromaidan movement over the last 3 months, but the last few days have been particularly terrifying. In the posts on social media, there are contrasting feelings of shame and pride in the country, shame in how the government has handled this, and pride in the way that people have stepped up, looking after each other, standing up for what they believe and for the kind of country in which they want to live.

Today's photo shows a wee souvenir I brought back one year, it's a bulava, a wee mace, and sadly seemed very suitable for today's blip. For those who haven't been following the news, follow this link for some of the BBC coverage of what can only be called carnage.

Just from the relatively small number of people I happen to know who are posting their news on Facebook, I could tell you about the man whose wife I met at several conferences, who was arrested yesterday and sentenced to 15 days in prison for sitting in a tree taking photos of a demonstration in Kharkiv, or the guy seeing if anyone had any spare cash as he had to buy medicine costing 4000 hrivnya, but the bank machines and bank cards system had been shut down, and maximum cash withdrawal from the banks (at the end of a long queue) was 500hrivnya (about £35). Or the interview I read on a Russian news site which has been known for putting across a rather one sided view of affairs (the anti-protester pro-government stance is pretty characteristic of Russian coverage, funnily enough given the reason behind the protests), which might have been part of their attempt to even things up. The woman being interviewed was in charge of the emergency medical care on Maidan and she told of her horror at what the volunteer medics were seeing and treating, as well as the pride in the way in which the Ukrainian people responded when they put on social media that they needed blood for transfusions or more medicines. She shared her anger at the official line (e.g. protesters were all armed and they were largely being shot in the back by their own comrades), pointing out the lack of weapons held by the majority of the protesters and the number of precision gun shot wounds they were seeing - none of the rubber bullets to the legs which you would perhaps expect to see as excessively harsh crowd control measures, but live bullets to the heart and through the eye, which takes a very high level of skill, indicating that the stories of snipers are indeed true. Some of her medics had been shot right in the middle of the red crosses they were wearing on top of their bulletproof vests. Of course there are idiots on all sides in anything like this, but it is a very one sided battle being fought.

I will share with you a Facebook post from a man called Taras Dyatlik, who I met several times when he worked in a Christian University in Donetsk, and taught some courses at the conferences I attended. Today he lost a relative on the Maidan in Kiev, his aunt's grandson was a student in Kiev, and died today after he was shot in the eye by a sniper. The cousin of friends of his also died today. He was volunteering as a medic and was removing bodies under gun fire. One of Taras's brothers is going to Kiev to serve as a medical volunteer, you will understand how worried the family are. I hope my translation conveys the emotion in his words, and I am humbled by the end of his statement, and hope that in a similar situation I could say the same. I apologise for any translation errors, I am doing this in a hurry.

"These" monsters of morality send their children overseas, but on the Maidan they shoot our children, who want to live and work in Ukraine... "These" masters of hawks, ideologues, who hire killers in and out of uniform, are starting to leave Ukraine with their families for Europe, some of them on scheduled flights, others on chartered flights. They are flying away as several armed forces divisions have started to refuse to obey their SS-like orders. They fly away as soon there will be no-one to defend them. They fly away in search of a quiet life, having in just 3 months built hell in their own country. They are flying away to where they wouldn't let their own people go, to the places they tried to scare Ukrainians away from, without any fear that some "gay" will brutally rape them. They fly from responsibility...

If "they" do manage to escape the judgement of men, they won't escape the judgement of their own conscience, when it wakes up inside them, even if it is in the very face of their own death. "They" will not evade the judgement of God in the end. The Lord calls us not to take vengeance for ourselves, we, God's beloved, are called to give that judgement over to God. Lord we want to fulfil Your Word. We don't want revenge! We give these people into Your hands. You know where they will be met. You know their addresses, their phone numbers. You know what to do with them. And our hearts are full of love and compassion for those who are suffering, to continue to be Your light and Your salt, wherever we are.

Ukraine, my prayers are with you.