Russia

Twenty-four people are dead, and over twenty are still missing after an apparent Russian missile strike on an apartment building in eastern Ukraine.

According to an official, Russia controls about 80 percent of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk and has cut off three bridges leading out of the metropolis.

According to Simon Morrison in a recent The Washington Post article, Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine has prompted a huge global push to disavow all things Russian. And while some of these measures are certainly warranted, others are not so clear. So, what should be done with Russian art?

On Monday, over 260 Ukrainian fighters abandoned the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, as Russia prepared to capture the port city.

According to recent reports, a Kremlin spokesman said that Finland joining the NATO military alliance would be considered a "threat."

That the US has been and continues to walk a very fine line in Ukraine does not mean that what the government is doing to support their defense is wrong. There are very good reasons to oppose Russia’s aggression and attempts to claim land over which they have no right. That said, it would be naïve to assume that the conflict in Ukraine will stay in Ukraine. Maybe it will, but every choice our government makes should be weighed against the possibility that it will provoke something more. I bring all of this up today as a reminder that the biblical command to “pray for all people,” and specifically “for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” is just as relevant and important for us today as it was for the first generations of Christians (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

Russians, like in so many other European nations, simply aren’t having enough babies. The country’s population is shrinking by more than a hundred thousand people a year, with no clear end in sight. Some parts of the country are simply becoming devoid of people. According to West, about 20,000 Russian villages have been abandoned in recent years, with tens of thousands closely following. This is a factor that could ultimately affect the outcome of the war.

This week, Russia’s foreign minister warned that a nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated,” adding that the violence could spiral into World War III.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly interested in gaining control over a historic Jerusalem Church that was under Russian control over a century ago.

Where did the idea come from that some ways of fighting wars crossed some sort of civilized line? And who decided where that line should be drawn?