This document provides a Christian perspective on the war in Ukraine from Dr. Peter Hammond. It makes several key points in 3 or fewer sentences: The war pits millions of Christians against each other and has caused much suffering. Ukraine has a history of oppression under communism, particularly Stalin's regime which caused millions of deaths. Attempts to expand NATO and draw Ukraine away from Russia's sphere of influence helped precipitate the conflict despite warnings from Russia.

1. A Christian Perspective on
the War in Ukraine
By Dr Peter Hammond

3. A Christian Perspective on
the War in Ukraine
By Dr Peter Hammond

4. Learning from the Conflict
As we mark six months of war in Ukraine,
what are the lessons we can learn?

5. First of all, Russia and Ukraine have the largest numbers of
Christians in Europe.

6. It is tragic that millions of Christians are pitted against one
another and are suffering as a result of this conflict.

7. Secondly, from missionary friends working in Ukraine and
Russia, we know that much of the narrative in the mainstream
media is shallow, superficial, lacking historic context,
misleading and dishonest.

8. From my travels and ministry throughout Eastern Europe with
Rev Bill Bathman,

9. I learned much of what Ukrainians suffered under communism,

10. particularly under the brutal dictatorship of Josef Stalin.

11. and up to 11 million Ukrainians died in the massacres and
resultant man-made starvation between 1929 and 1936.

12. This came to be called the Holodomor. Also known as the Great
Famine and the Ukrainian Genocide of 1932 to 1933.

13. The word Holodomor literally translated from Ukrainian means:
“death by hunger”, “to kill by hunger”, or “to starve to death.”

14. Holodomor is a compound of the Ukrainian words
holod, meaning hunger and mor, meaning plague.
The Holodomor

16. The 2017 film Bitter Harvest dramatizes the horrors of the Soviet
Holodomor in Ukraine.

17. Listening to the Ukrainians
From the Ukrainians themselves I learned how they had been
betrayed on numerous occasions by the British and American
governments,

18. by the Versailles Treaty which betrayed them into the hands
of the Soviet Union at the end of the First World War

19. Ukraine was freed
by Germany in 1917
and this independence
was recognised by
Vladimir Lenin's Soviet
Union in the
Brest-Litovsk Treaty
of March 1918.
But the Allies at
Versailles betrayed
Ukraine into the hands
of the Soviets.

20. Ukraine was also betrayed during
and after the Second World War as well

21. when vast quantities of military aid from America, Canada and
Britain rescued Stalin's brutal communist regime.

22. As our friends in Eastern Europe pointed out to us, without the
extravagant support of the United States, United Kingdom and Canada,
Stalin's Soviet Union could not have survived Operation Barbarossa in
1941.

23. Even before America entered WWII officially, vast quantities of
military hardware were being flown, shipped and trucked into Russia
via Alaska, Persia and Murmansk.

24. "…Should you
help the wicked
and love those
who hate
the Lord?
Therefore
the wrath
of the Lord
is upon you.”
2 Chronicles 19:2

25. In the Yalta agreement , FDR and Churchill betrayed not only
the people of Ukraine,

26. but over 3 million Russians,
Ukrainians and other East European
refugees living in Western Europe
were forcibly repatriated to Stalin’s
Soviet Union.

27. This Operation Keelhaul
(which was kept secret for over three decades)

28. was so treacherous that even hundreds of thousands of Russian
and Ukrainian children, who had been born and brought up in
freedom in the West, were forced at gun and bayonet point
into the hands of the Soviet NKVD.

29. Under Operation Keelhaul
over 2 million Russians
and a million Ukrainians
in Western Europe
were forcibly repatriated
By British and American troops
into the hands of the Soviet NKVD,
most massacred out of hand and the
rest consigned to slave labour in the
GULAG in Siberia.

30. Many were shot out of hand and the rest lived out the rest of their
existence as slave labourers in Arctic hellholes of the Gulag.

32. The Ukrainian and Lithuanian Armies continued to fight for their
freedom and independence for 10 years after the conclusion of WWII.

33. Units of the Ukrainian Army were still operating, with field artillery,
fighting valiantly against Soviet oppression, as late as 1955.
Yet without receiving any support from the Allies.

34. Some Ukrainians have said to me that they believe the
American policy is to “fight to the last Ukrainian.”

35. A Proxy War
During the Cold War
in the 1980s,
we knew that we
were fighting
the Soviet Union.

36. The USSR was supplying weapons and training and using the
Cubans and Angolan FAPLA forces in Angola

37. as their proxies in the war against UNITA freedom fighters
and the SADF.

38. In the same way many Ukrainians and Russians today see that
the war in Ukraine is actually America (and their NATO allies)

39. using the Ukrainians as their proxies in a war against Russia.

40. Ukraine did not ask for this.
The European nations did not ask for it.

41. Globalism versus Nationalism
At this time, America and the EU/NATO represent globalism.

42. Russia, which used to be globalist, now is nationalist.

43. In a real sense the conflict is about the globalist/WEF
New World Order Great Reset

44. and Russian resistance to it.

45. Paganism versus Christianity
The Kiev regime of Volodymyr Zelensky is very liberal, much
like its American State Department sponsors.

46. The Ukrainian government is pro-abortion, pro-LGBTQ.

47. Whereas the Russian government of Vladimir Putin is
pro-family,

48. opposed to the privileges for perverts agenda

49. and supportive of Orthodox Christianity.

52. While Zelensky is hailed as a great hero of democracy in
many quarters of the West,

53. his humour and track record as a comedian is often vile,
perverted and pornographic.

54. It is also troubling that Zelensky has banned every political
party in his country except his own.

55. And closed down every media outlet except the government’s
propaganda agency.

56. It is hard to understand how a man who bans free-speech and
throws journalists and opposition political leaders into prison,
can be lifted up as a paragon of freedom and democracy.

58. Corruption and the Arms Trade
Ukraine is also identified as one of the most corrupt countries in
the world and certainly the most corrupt country in Europe.

60. The Biden and Pelosi families’ involvement
in the corruption in Ukraine is well documented.

63. When vice president, Joe Biden boasted that he had pressured the
Ukrainian government to fire the attorney general that was
attempting to investigate the company his son was involved in,

64. he threatened to withhold $1 billion in aid until the AG was fired.
This was done within a matter of hours!

72. “While they promise them liberty,
they themselves are slaves of corruption…”
2 Peter 2:19

73. According to a CBS news documentary,
of all the billions of dollars of military aid sent to the Ukraine

74. less than 30% actually ends up in the frontline of the conflict.

75. Most disappears and is sold in the illegal arms trade,
often finding the way to terrorist sponsoring regimes.

76. Doubtless to the financial benefit of government officials
of Zelensky, whose personal wealth seems excessive
for a comedian turned president.

77. Human Trafficking
Ukraine also has some of the largest numbers of women trafficked
into the sex slavery industry worldwide.

78. Biological Warfare Laboratories
The United States Department of Defence maintains numerous
biological warfare laboratories and research facilities in Ukraine
where their personnel enjoy diplomatic status and where the
Ukraine government has no jurisdiction.

79. Few of these laboratories have the required safety criteria to
undertake the kind of dangerous research they are doing.

80. In June 2022, the Pentagon confessed to funding 46 biological
research facilities in Ukraine over the last 20 years.
This was after revelations by Russia's investigative committee
were published.

81. When serving as a senator for Illinois, Barack Hussein Obama
helped negotiate a deal to build a biological research laboratory in
the Ukrainian city of Odessa.

82. Metabiota, a company financed by Hunter Biden's Rosemont
Seneca partnership with the Communist Party of China and its
People's Liberation Army, was awarded a $18,4 million federal
contract for DTRA in Ukraine.

83. USA has provided over $350 million to fund over 1,850 projects
for the Science and Technology Centre in Ukraine (STCU), whose
US personnel work under diplomatic cover in Ukraine.

84. An Unnecessary War
This certainly is an unnecessary war.
It was, like many conflicts, avoidable.

85. From 2008 when American and Ukrainian leaders began speaking
publicly of Ukraine joining NATO, the Russian government made
very clear that was unacceptable.

86. From 1999 Russian President Vladimir Putin attempted
on numerous occasions to have Russia join NATO,
but was rebuffed.

87. Therefore Russia regarded the expansion of NATO eastwards,
incorporating what used to be Warsaw Pact allies of Russia and
even countries which used to be part of the old Soviet Union, as a
strategic military threat.

88. Yet the warnings were disregarded. As recently as January of this
year, 2022, Putin requested an assurance from the American
president Biden that no American missiles or bases would be
placed in Ukraine. Biden refused to give such an assurance.

89. Even in February 2022 Putin requested an urgent meeting with
Biden to discuss the Ukrainian crisis. Biden refused.

90. The USA and its NATO allies pushed ahead with integrating
Ukraine into the Western alliance.

91. This has been the political, geographical and diplomatic
equivalent of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the
Soviet Union attempted to establish military bases in Cuba
that could threaten America.

92. Considering how America responded to Russia attempting to place
missiles and military bases in Cuba in 1962,

93. it should have been
obvious that Russia
would not
be willing to have
a similar threat
in their backyard
either.

94. An Avoidable War
Even after Russia launched what it termed its special military
operation into Ukraine, President Putin offered a peace proposal
that, if accepted, could have ended the war in week one.

95. The conditions: 1. Ukrainian neutrality – no joining of NATO.

96. 2. Acknowledgement of Crimea as Russian

98. and 3. Recognition of the independence of the two separatist
republics in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

99. The Historic Context
None of these were radical requirements. They were actually really
just maintaining the status quo as of February 2022.

100. Crimea has been Russian consistently since it was liberated
from the Ottoman Turkish Empire

101. in the late 1700s.

102. Crimea had only been integrated into Ukraine by the arbitrary
decision of Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev (who was himself a
Ukrainian).

104. As the vast majority of the population of Crimea were and are
Russian and as the population overwhelmingly chose to be part of
the Russian Federation in a Referendum in 2014, Ukraine had no
control over it anyway.

105. The separatist
republics
of
Donetsk
And
Luhansk,
in the Donbas
region of
eastern
Ukraine,
had been
recognised
in the
Minsk
Agreement
of 2014.

106. Although they had still been subjected to artillery and rocket
bombardments by the Ukraine military,
with the loss of thousands of lives since 2014,

107. again, Ukraine had no control over these regions. Donetsk and
Luhansk citizens had voted overwhelmingly for secession and
independence

108. after the new Kiev government, installed by violent riots, orchestrated
by the United States government to overthrow the elected government

109. of Ukraine, removed the minority language rights of Russian speakers
in Ukraine.

110. (You can view the documentary Ukraine on Fire which gives the
historic background to this).

111. Regions in Donbas of over 90% Russian speakers were not willing
to have their children educated in anything other than their home
language.

112. Lessons to be Learned
One would hope, at this time of tragic crisis and war, that
lessons could be learned.

113. Meddling in other countries, sponsoring revolutions and coups
to topple foreign governments, can have catastrophic
consequences.

114. (This is true
not only for
Ukraine,
but also for
Afghanistan,
Iraq,
Libya
and Syria.)

115. Violating agreements and ignoring warnings can be disastrous.

116. Abolishing minority language rights for Russians in Ukraine
and refusing requests for autonomy in regions with a Russian
majority population was not wise.

117. Continuing to expand NATO and the European Union
eastwards, despite repeated warnings from Russia,
was viewed as threatening Russia's strategic security.

118. The Putin
strategy should
be compared to
what the U.S.
has done in the
Balkans and
other places
and similar
U.S. actions.

120. “He who passes by and meddles in a quarrel
not his own is like one who takes a dog
by the ears.” Proverbs 26:17

121. Refusing the application
by Russia to join NATO
was, in hindsight, perhaps
not the best policy.

122. Isolating, enforcing sanctions and threatening Russia not only
drove this potential ally away from the West but forced them
to make a deal with China.

123. Russia could be a powerful ally
to counter the rising threat of Red China.

124. Alienating and demonising Russia
has not improved the security of NATO.

125. American meddling in Ukraine has not improved the lives
or security of the Ukrainians.

126. "Do not
be deceived:
God cannot
be mocked.
A man reaps
what he sows."
Galatians 6:7

127. An Unwinnable War
There is no way that Ukraine has any realistic chance of defeating
the Russian military which is over 10 times larger than their own
forces. This is an unwinnable war.

128. Rather than trying to subjugate regions which are historically,
demographically and linguistically Russian,

129. and rather than trying to ally themselves with NATO,
peace will have to be made with Russia sooner or later.

130. Why must tens of thousands more people suffer
before the inevitable is acknowledged?

131. Blessed are the Peacemakers
Our Lord Jesus Christ taught: “ For which of you, intending to
build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he
has enough to finish it lest, after he has laid the foundation and is
not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This
man began to build and was not able to finish’?

132. Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit
down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to
meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else,
while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and
asks conditions of peace.” Luke 14: 28 – 32

133. "He has shown you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justly, to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God? “ Micah 6:8

134. "Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the Word of the Lord may run swiftly
and be glorified, just as it is with you, and that we may be delivered
from unreasonable and wicked men; for not all have faith."
2 Thessalonians 3:1-2