re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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Worshipping Putin and Mother Russia isn't Christian: it's idolatry.

It's the same as the Kim cult in North Korea. Calling it "Christian" doesn't make it so. Sadly, I also see increasing numbers in the US looking for a political savior, desiring victory over their political opponents instead of victory over sin and death.

But it's worth repeating that Russia doesn't even pretend very well to be Christian. It's still an atheist country, with only about 7% of the population going to church on a weekly basis. That's why, for example, Russia has the world's highest abortion rate by far -- they aren't a people who value life.

The US state with the lowest church attendance, Vermont, still has over 20% who attend weekly church services. And Ukraine also has about 26% weekly church attendance, more than three times the number in Russia.

That's a big part of the reason that I care so much about this war. Russia has systematically eliminated Baptist and other evangelical churches and occupied Ukraine. They consider those to be western perversions and persecute the faithful.

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Stalin wanted to get rid of the Russian Orthodox Church entirely, because he wanted the USSR to be a purely atheist country, but the Soviets eventually learned that the ROC could be an effective government instrument to help control the people.

A number of KGB agents were made priests, and these priest could report anyone who wasn't completely loyal to the Party.

The current leader of the ROC, Patriarch Kirill. spied for the KGB in Switzerland.

Since the current war began, the full corruption of the Russian Orthodox Church has truly been revealed. One of the worst blasphemies was Kirill saying:

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Russian soldiers who die in the line of duty in Ukraine have all of their sins forgiven, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church proclaimed in a sermon, comparing their sacrificial death to that of Jesus.

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This is, of course, demonic. It's a cultish mockery of Christianity, which says that forgiveness of sins comes only through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

But back when the USSR broke up, the Russian Orthodox Church remained the official state church in Ukraine. All of the old, historic churches were still used by the ROC, and most people in Ukraine were members.

That isn't to diminish the religious diversity in Ukraine at the time. Ukraine has a sizeable Catholic population in western Ukraine (much of which was once part of the Catholic Austro-Hungarian empire). There are also sizeable numbers of Greek Orthodox, and of course there are also the Muslim Tatars of Crimea.

As I indicated before, there were some Baptists left in Ukraine from German Anabaptists who had settled there in the 1800s, and that group exploded when American Baptists financed the opening of Odessa Theological Seminary to train pastors, as a great many people in Ukraine started looked for a more authentic faith than the fake pro-Moscow cult.

But even most of the Ukrainian members of the ROC eventually realized that Putin was using the ROC to control them, as the ROC was full of FSB agents.

By the way, this hasn't only happened in Ukraine. Earlier this month, Bulgaria expelled several ROC priests after catching them spying for the Kremlin.

ROC corruption caused the formation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), with the same Orthodox belief system and liturgy, but outside of the direct control of Moscow. And, over time, more an more Ukrainian Christians left the ROC for the OCU.

This infuriated Putin (and many other Russians) who believe that they should have religious control over Orthodoxy. Ukrainian formation of the OCU, of course, also eliminated many of Putin's opportunities for corruption in Ukraine. The formation of the OCU was, in fact, a major reason for Putin's invasion last year.

When the war started, though, Ukraine did not want to infringe on the rights of those Ukrainians who still wanted to worship in ROC churches. But, of course, those ROC priests under the control of Kirill promoted Russia in their sermons, and some of them continued to actively spy for Russia. Even though the ROC is directly controlled by the Kremlin, Ukraine continued to allow it to operate. So far, though, 68 ROC priests in Ukraine have been identified as collaborators or spies.

Eventually, Ukraine began the process of removing government-owned churches from the ROC and transferring them to the UOC. Again, these are government-owned church buildings that we're talking about. But the removal of the ROC from those buildings is was the source of lots of brainless talk from idiots such as SirWinston (and his love interest Tucker) about Ukraine "persecuting" Christians.

But the ROC continues to raise the stakes. The ROC is now actually establishing a "private military company" to fight in Ukraine. That is, the ROC has decided to actively fight on Russia's behalf. This is incredibly sick and perverted. It's horribly wicked to use the name of Jesus to support an invasion force which tortures, rapes, and murders civilians.

So, yeah. I think that Ukraine is fully justified in deciding that the Kremlin can no longer use the ROC to operate inside Ukraine. In fact, most Ukrainians think that it's way overdue. Here's a gifted Washington Post article if you want to learn more.

EDIT: thanks to Cypher and WeeWee for making the point, while I was typing this longer post.

Watch this video of a failed Russian assault at Avdiivka. It really shows the impact of superior artillery (and especially cluster munitions).

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Russians are digging tunnels in Avdiivka to get closer to the Ukrainian positions, says the spokesman of the 110th Brigade Anton Kotsukon':

"They are digging tunnels closer to our positions, firstly, for the purpose of camouflage, and, secondly, to emerge somewhere closer to our positions unexpectedly"

He also noted that Ukrainians spotted the use of remote-controlled robotic transport vehicles by the Russians that can carry a decent load.

Kotsukon' added that Russians are not abandoning hopes to take Avdiivka.

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LINK

You just say shite that is lies. It's all lies, rhetoric and propaganda.

You're a fricking wind up toy.

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Trailer park “patriots” like yourself support Iran

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which means they support Hamas

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This may be old news (I’ve not been keeping up with the Russo-Ukrainian War that well since the start of the Israeli War) but it seems that it could be a significant development.

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Several days now. They are at least in two towns, if not have taken them.

On the left bank of the Dnipro, just this morning, from Russian Telegram channel Supernova:

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Krynki .. firmly and clearly ... under the control of the ZSU ... there are no communists in the village ...

Peschanivka... there is a battle...

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I marked Krynky with a black oval and Pishchanivka with a blue arrow. This is the largest raid across the Dnipro that Ukraine has done to date, but it's still just marine infantry -- Ukraine hasn't yet put any amphibious armored vehicles across the Dnipro.

If and when Ukraine pushes some BMPs or Rosomaks across the Dnipro, that's when this changes from a raid to something bigger: a real attempt to establish a bridgehead.

clown post, bro

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If and when Ukraine pushes some BMPs or Rosomaks across the Dnipro, that's when this changes from a raid to something bigger: a real attempt to establish a bridgehead.

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They really don't need those to hold the terrain they are in. They are fixing Russian forces in place though