Put yourselves, if you can, in the shoes of one of their parents: your home has been destroyed, your village invaded, and one or more of your children have been kidnapped by the invaders.
Passengers in public transport in Odesa, Ukraine, in April 2025. / Photo: [link]A. Lvov[/link], Unsplash, CC0.
Months ago, at a meeting of the European Evangelical Alliance, I had two conversations with our brothers representing Ukraine and Russia. They were painful.
I will always remember what a Russian brother told me: he lives in a small town near the Ukrainian border; they are helping the wounded and the maimed and their families, but every day a dozen coffins of young soldiers arrive... a dozen families destroyed. If this is happening in a small town, what must the bloodshed be like throughout Russia?
In invaded Ukraine, the pain is immense, but it is no less so in Russia, which has lost a million soldiers between dead and wounded. And one wonders: how can the Russian people not rise up against the monster Putin who is destroying his own people for a stupid imperialist chimera? But let us calm down, we will talk about this another day.
This weekend, the European Evangelical Alliance is calling for an International Day of Prayer for Ukraine to join with our European brothers and sisters in every church in intercession for Ukraine. One of the sections of the prayer calls for the return of the missing Ukrainian children. Put yourselves, if you can, in the shoes of one of their parents: your home has been destroyed, your village invaded, and one or more of your children have been kidnapped by the invaders to be educated as Russians, erasing all memory of their family and identity and sowing hatred in their hearts towards their own country.
[destacate] There is nothing new in the cruelty of human beings: Daniel and his friends were torn from their homes and everything was done to erase their identity[/destacate]There is nothing new in the cruelty of human beings: Daniel and his friends were torn from their homes and everything was done to erase their identity, starting with changing their names. We also remember the girl kidnapped for the house of Naaman the Syrian.In the call for the International Day of Prayer for Ukraine, you will find several prayer requests, all thoughtful and relevant. I would like to add a personal one: ‘In memory of so much death and heartbreak in Ukraine and of so many young Russians sent to their deaths, Lord, for this, remove the tyrant Putin from among us!’
Xesús Manuel Suárez, medical doctor and general secretary of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance.
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