Thank you all for continuing to pray for Ukraine. Here is a (translated) quote from the Ukrainian BBC on the decision that was made by the Ukrainian Parliament this afternoon:

The Верховна Рада (Ukrainian Parliament) on Monday evening voted to enact martial law in the border regions of Ukraine for the next 30 days…

The president added a command to the measure that the country would only enact martial law in the regions that border Russia and the Azov sea [where the Ukrainian Navy was attacked], which include the oblasts (basically counties) of Cherihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson, Odesa, and Vinnytsya.

Apparently the defense measures will be applied this Wednesday (the 28th). If you recognize some of the names in that list, that may be because we have missionaries and / or friends in all of those regions except for Donetsk. Please especially be praying for them. We are still waiting to see if / how this will affect us personally, as we do not live in one of those regions bordering Russia.

UPDATE FROM LAST POST: I need to correct something I said in my last post. The government is not considering and has not declared war officially against Russia. The wording confused me, because the words for “martial law” is literally “воєнний стан” or “a state of war” in Ukrainian. This basically means that the government recognizes that it is in a war, but it has not declared against whom.

One of my friends that lives in one of those regions the East says that they are doing well and, though they are watching the situation closely, he does not believe that they are in any danger. Here is a direct quote from our conversation:

As far as I can tell, it shouldn’t have any affect on daily life as long as Russia stays on their side of the border… So far they have for the last 5 years.

When he says “their side of the border” he means that particular part of the country, not the Donetsk / Luhansk (Donbas) area.