Russia focuses missiles on Ukrainian defense, neighborhoods

 Earlier this week, Russia launched another series of missile attacks against Ukraine. Last winter, Russian forces attacked the country’s power grid. Now, they are focused on hitting Ukrainian defense targets and residential neighborhoods.

We caught up with Eric Mock of Slavic Gospel Association (SGA) on his drive across the Poland border into Ukraine. He is connecting with SGA-supported churches distributing aid to Ukrainians struggling to survive the winter.

Mock says, “As we are driving, I am here with my dear friend Jonasz and he has been responsible for working in partnership with SGA in shipping aid from Poland into Ukraine.”

Jonasz is the Director of Baptist Action Charity in Poland, an extension of the Polish Baptist Churches working with SGA.

“In fact, the amount of aid that we shipped was over 2,000 tons of aid,” says Mock. “Over 20 million meals have been provided through churches with the Gospel going out over half a million times, which is astounding to me.

“Even that being said, the situation in Ukraine has in the last few weeks become even more challenging. The same things that happened last winter when it was so difficult are happening now. There has been a huge increase in the number of shellings and drone and missile attacks. They have been targeting infrastructure.”

Next month is the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Although around 5 million Ukrainians fled at the start of the war and stayed out (1.1 million fled but returned), another 37 million people are still in-country and need the support of faithful believers.

(Photo courtesy of SGA)

Mock says, “In many churches, we meet single women trying to care for their children while their husbands defend the country. Then you have the elderly who have grown up and lived here in Ukraine and there’s nowhere to go. Then there are just young people who love their country and have no desire to go anywhere else.”

You can support aid to Ukrainians through SGA here.

“As we listen to the politics that seem to be a part of mainstream media right now, there are mothers and fathers and children who are struggling to stay warm, struggling to put food on the table,” says Mock. “The churches that we’re serving are the ones that are trying to step into the gap.”

Header photo courtesy of SGA.