Ukraine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-fBIf3cyPw&t=516s
Bringing WW3 Closer: "Ukraine Will Join NATO"
In a shocking admission NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said, "NATO allies have agreed that Ukraine will become a member of our alliance, but at the same time that is a long-term perspective."
This is of course is a red line for Russia as Putin has warned that Ukraine joining NATO will turn this into WW3. While NATO might think this is a bluff – it is not. Ukraine as part of NATO would threaten the very heartland of Russia. Russians see NATO as not only an enemy but one that is fast occupying traditional slavic lands.
While there is no question that NATO has an interest in gobbling up more up Eastern Europe – why did Stoltenberg find the need to admit this openly?
It seems that NATO is interested in provoking Russia into a wider war in order to claim the need to enter in even a stronger way. If this is the case, it is a gamble and one the West may not win.
https://www.israelunwired.com/bringing-ww3-closer-ukraine-will-join-nato/?
Watch Now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-fBIf3cyPw&t=111s

https://www.faithwire.com/2022/07/28/please-pray-for-gods-protection-orphans-promise-aid-workers-taken-hostage-by-cruel-russian-militia%EF%BF%BC/?
‘Please Pray for God’s Protection’: Orphan’s Promise Aid Workers Taken Hostage by Cruel Russian Militia
By CBN News
Contributor
July 28, 2022
Ten members of a CBN Orphan’s Promise group in Berdyansk, Ukraine, have been taken captive by Russian militia groups.
They were kidnapped while helping evacuate residents from the southern port city, which is occupied by the Russians.
Listen to CBN News’ brand new morning podcast, Quick Start  
The captives include several Orphan’s Promise volunteers, a driver, and an elderly couple who are the parents of a pastor who works with the ministry. Their whereabouts are unknown.

“Please pray for our Berdyansk team. Ten people were taken by Russian militia trying to evacuate from the occupied city, volunteers taking the refugees out, including an elderly couple, parents of our key partner church pastor, a driver, and a couple of refugees fleeing from Mariupol,” Orphan’s Promise Director Nataliya Khomyak said.

“These militia groups are known for their cruelty, especially to the volunteers helping Ukrainians. Please pray for God’s protection over them and for His help in their release,”  Khomyak said. 

Headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Orphan’s Promise has a center and residential home in Berdyansk.

The children had already been safely evacuated to another country, but the humanitarian team stayed to serve their community. They’ve been cooking food and delivering meals and other aid to those in need. 

CLICK HERE to help Orphan’s Promise help Ukrainian victims of war.

On Thursday’s edition of The 700 Club, host Terry Meeuwsen, the founder of Orphan’s Promise, told Gordon Robertson the children “almost didn’t make it.”

“They made the driver get out and kneel down on the ground next to the car. There were three Russian guys. Two of them argued over his (the driver’s) cell phone. And the third one said to the team, ‘Get up, get in your car and get out of here.'”

“This time, this group of people was not only stopped but the driver was badly beaten,” Meeuwsen said. “It’s not safe there and yet we’ve had lots of volunteers and staff that have stayed behind to help people. Not just people in Berdyansk, but people from Mariupol, and the east that are coming through.”

“You can understand that it’s hard for people to decide to leave a place where everything they own is there to go somewhere it’s all an unknown, and so, sometimes they wait too long to get out,” she continued. 

Turning to the team who was taken captive, Meeuwsen said, “This team of people, we have no idea where they are. We don’t know if they’re alive. We don’t know if they’re being cared for. We just have no idea. And being treated well has not been the traditional response by the Russians.”

Meeuwsen thanked viewers for their love and support of the Orphan’s Promise ministry. 

“Thank you all so much,” she said. “We covet your prayers and we will let you know if we hear something in the future.”

Second Time This Year Russian Troops Have Abducted Ministry’s Volunteers

This is the second incident this year in which Russian forces kidnapped Orphan’s Promise volunteers for helping Ukrainians. 

As CBN News reported, a woman by the name of Valentina was abducted by the Russians last March. Eyewitnesses saw the kidnappers throw a bag over her head as they abducted her in the street. A woman who knew Valentina reportedly betrayed her to the Russian troops when they arrived in town, telling them that Valentina was helping the Ukrainians. 

Valentina worked in the area near Mariupol for the Orphan’s Promise Children of War Project. She had been helping with the distribution of food to people who are hiding in bomb shelters.

“The team evacuates women, children, as well as sick and elderly from hot spots. Missionaries, while under fire, drive to bakeries (that also work under fire) and deliver bread to hungry people at the same time providing them with spiritual bread,” Orphan’s Promise said at the time. 

Since Valentina’s abduction, there has been no more information about her or her condition. 

***As the number of voices facing big-tech censorship continues to grow, please sign up for Faithwire’s daily newsletter and download the CBN News app, developed by our parent company, to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

https://www.israelunwired.com/watch-lara-logan-tells-the-truth-about-the-ukraine-russia-conflict/?

WATCH: LARA LOGAN TELLS THE TRUTH ABOUT THE UKRAINE-RUSSIA CONFLICT
written by Micha Gefen March 17, 2022 32665 views
Share on Facebook
Tweet
From the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, we have been taught to believe that Ukraine is innocent and Russia is the aggressor.
VIDEO AMERICAS  VOICE
From the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine crisis we have been taught to believe that Ukraine is innocent and Russia is the aggressor.

However, nothing can be farther from the truth. Russia is not losing this war despite what the Western intelligent and media personalities want you to believe. The Russian army is carrying out its operations as part of its overall plan. Russia wants to bomb Ukraine into submission.

Regardless of how the media portrays Russia and its leaders, the Western propaganda is equally disturbing. Lara Logan busts open some of the myths about the present situation. What Russia is doing is brutal and horrible. But the narrative that is being thrown around is not at all the whole story. This is where Lara Logan opens up issues to enlighten us and see the picture with a more broad stroke.
LARA LOGANRUSSIAUKRAINE

https://www.israelunwired.com/ex-kgb-agent-reveals-putins-true-plans-in-attacking-ukraine/
EX-KGB AGENT REVEALS PUTIN’S TRUE PLANS IN ATTACKING UKRAINE
written by Phil Schneider May 9, 2022 2815 views
Much has been discussed about Vladimir Putin’s motives in sending most of his standing Army into battle against Ukraine. It seems unfathomable to so many Western observers, that a struggling Russian economy would be able to withstand a sustained attack against Ukraine. The massive sanctions that have been clamped on Russia certainly did not help. So if Vladimir Putin is supposedly a leader who thinks through everything before acting, how can we understand this seemingly reckless gamble? Only an ex-KGB agent can help explain the logic of Putin.

Victor Davis Hanson claimed that Putin is actually more predictable than many seem to think. The weakness that the Biden administration showed in the hasty run-away retreat from Afghanistan certainly made it clear to the would-be aggressors that the world’s policeman is not going to take too much action against them if the misbehave. Putin-run Russia is probably not the #1 threat. China is. But in truth, it is the Russia-China cooperation that threatens the West and the world in general.

Just as in World War II, the most dangerous agreement was the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement. That agreement between Russia and Germany basically sealed the fate of hundreds of millions of people from Russia to the East and all the way to Great Britain in the West. There was no question that Russia being complicit with Germany in splitting up Poland was the final straw that led to the German invasion. Once Germany invaded, it was World War II. The tide only turned when Russia switched sides and joined England and the United States after Germany invaded Russia.
FOX NEWS VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vh01mE3vD8

Today, the United States has much daylight between it and China. And especially after the Russian attack on Ukraine, the US and Russia are nowhere near any form of cooperation. But one can argue that what is needed more than ever is triangulation. Meaning, America must engage China and compete against it. Similarly, it must engage Russia and compete against it. Meaning, the main goal should be to establish daylight between China and Russia. This is no simple task. China needs Russian energy and Russia has a seemingly unlimited supply. The key to successful triangulation is probably via an aggressive energy policy that the United States must adopt. It is clear that this will not be done via a Democrat-run administration. We need a total reset on our Russia and China policy.
KGBRUSSIA

https://www.israel365news.com/269029/democrats-visit-ukraine-no-talk-of-peace-only-total-victory-over-russia/?
DEMOCRATS VISIT UKRAINE: NO TALK OF PEACE, ONLY TOTAL “VICTORY” OVER RUSSIA
BY ADAM ELIYAHU BERKOWITZ | MAY 3, 2022 | UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR

O mortal, turn your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Prophesy against him Ezekiel 38:2 (The Israel BibleTM

Pelosi Becomes Highest-Ranking U.S. Official To Visit Ukraine After Meeting with Zelenskyy in Kyiv (screenshot)
On Saturday, a group of congressional Democrats led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif), the most senior American official to visit Ukraine since the war began, paid a surprise visit to Kyiv. Pelosi made the announcement from Poland on Sunday.

“Our discussion centered around the subjects at hand, as you would suspect: security, humanitarian assistance, economic assistance, and eventually rebuilding when victory is won,” said Pelosi, who is now the highest-ranking US official to visit the beleaguered nation. 

Her visit follows one by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. They entered the country via train and met with Zelenskyy in a windowless underground bunker in Kyiv on April 24.

“We were proud to convey to him a message of unity from the Congress of the US. A message of appreciation from the American people for his leadership and admiration to the people of Ukraine for their courage,” she said. “America stands with Ukraine, we stand with Ukraine until victory is won, and we stand with NATO.”

She added later that the visit sent “an unmistakable message to the world: that America stands firmly with our NATO allies in our support for Ukraine.”

https://www.israel365news.com/268768/ukraines-jewish-president-declares-holy-war-against-russia-christ-has-risen-watch/
UKRAINE’S ‘JEWISH’ PRESIDENT DECLARES HOLY WAR AGAINST RUSSIA: “CHRIST HAS RISEN!” [WATCH]
BY ADAM ELIYAHU BERKOWITZ | APR 26, 2022 | UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR

Hashem is in its midst, it will not be toppled; by daybreak Hashem will come to its aid. Psalms 46:6 (The Israel BibleTM)
Zelensky invokes religious war, declaring, “Christ has risen!”
Ukraine’s embattled president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, sent out a video Easter message from the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv to his people.
Zelensky congratulated Ukrainians on Easter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1G9tPmbKEU

“CHRIST IS RISEN”
He then urged his people to struggle towards victory. 

“Dear Ukrainians, last year we celebrated Easter at home because of the pandemic. This year we also celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, not as we used to. Because of another virus. Because of the plague called war. Both last year’s and the current threat are united by one thing – nothing can defeat Ukraine.”

“The great holiday today gives us great hope and unwavering faith that light will overcome darkness, good will overcome evil, life will overcome death, and therefore Ukraine will surely win! And on Easter, we ask God for great grace to make our great dream come true – this is another great day – the day when a great peace will come to Ukraine. And with it – eternal harmony and prosperity.”

“Take care of yourselves. Take care of your loved ones. Take care of Ukraine!”

Zelensky ended his address with a bizarre declaration that belied his Jewish roots:

“Christ is Risen!” he declared. “He is Risen Indeed.”

RELIGIOUS WAR
Zelensky’s final declaration is not only perplexing but is also deeply troubling, amplifying the war into a religious conflict. Of so, this would establish Ukraine and Russia as being opposed along religious lines. Many political analysts have suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin is attempting to reestablish a tsarist empire patterned after Vladimir the Great as a Third Rome based on the Christian Eastern Orthodox Church. Despite millions of followers in Ukraine, the Church, led by Patriarch Kirill, has come out in support of the invasion of Ukraine. Patriarch Kirill has called Putin’s rule a “miracle of God.”

https://www.israelunwired.com/russia-brings-the-jihad-to-ukraine/?
RUSSIA BRINGS THE JIHAD TO UKRAINE
written by David Mark April 14, 2022 2238 views
According to multiple reports Russia is actively recruiting 16,000 fighters from the Middle East to fight in the Ukraine.
Iran-Backed Militias ARMING Russia? Ukraine Becoming Proxy War | Watchman Newscast LIVESTREAM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMUco2vJgLM&t=505s

Russia is said to be willing to offer members of the various factions it put together in Syria a chance to fight in Ukraine for money. These factions include members of the National Defense Force, Christian Militias, and army defectors – all of which have been trained in urban combat by Russia.

While many might think that this plan is so far fetched it won’t happen, the Syrian economy is so bad, many former fighters are actively considering the prospects of joining the war in Ukraine.

Syrian fighters are both inexpensive and battle hardened. With Russia’s efforts to take Kiev and Karhiv stalled, Jihadists might make all the difference.
JG-BREAKING-NEWSPUTINSYRIAUKRAINE

https://www.israel365news.com/268370/russia-to-enlist-retired-soldiers-conquer-kyiv/?u
RUSSIA TO ENLIST RETIRED SOLDIERS, ‘CONQUER KYIV’
BY DAVID SIDMAN | APR 11, 2022 | UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR

O mortal, turn your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Prophesy against him Ezekiel 38:2 (The Israel BibleTM)

Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov revealed on Sunday that Russian forces would not only ‘liberate’ Eastern Ukrainian regions but will also conquer the country’s capital, Kyiv. The ambitious undertaking seems to have compelled the Kremlin to enlist Russian soldiers that have already retired a decade ago.

Chechen warriors have been on the front lines of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

UK intelligence reports that Moscow is trying to boost its military’s capability by hiring army service members who haven’t served in the military since 2012. The decision was made following “mounting losses” suffered by the Russian army.

At the same time, Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov stated that an upcoming Russian military offensive would “liberate” not just cities in Ukraine’s Donbas region. He said it will also target the capital city of Kyiv as well as “all other cities.”

In a tweet, as part of regular intelligence updates, the UK’s Defence Ministry said that Putin’s military is striving to “generate more fighting power.”

It also seeks to boost its depth by recruiting soldiers from the unrecognized Transnistria region, an area of disputed territory adjacent to Moldova, said the UK intel.

https://worldisraelnews.com/ukrainian-leaders-predict-more-gruesome-discoveries-ahead/?utm_source=jeeng

Ukrainian leaders predict more gruesome discoveries ahead

 April 8, 2022

Ukrainian leaders predict more gruesome discoveries aheadA Ukrainian serviceman walks on a destroyed Russian fighting vehicle in Bucha, April 7, 2022. (AP/Vadim Ghirda)

Bucha’s horrors may be only the beginning, Zelensky warns.

By Associated Press

Ukrainian leaders predicted more gruesome discoveries would be made in coming days after retreating Russian forces left crushed buildings, streets strewn with destroyed cars and mounting civilian casualties that drew condemnation across the globe.

Kremlin forces devastated the northern city of Chernihiv as part of their attempt to sweep south toward the capital before retreating. In the aftermath, dozens of people lined up to receive bread, diapers and medicine from vans parked outside a shattered school now serving as an aid-distribution point.
SPONSORED APPEAL: HELP FEED UKRAINIAN JEWS FOR PASSOVER

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted a photo as she was boarding a train Friday, accompanied by the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell, to head to Kyiv to show solidarity with Ukraine and meet with its president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Looking forward to Kyiv,” Von der Leyen wrote on Twitter.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned Thursday that despite Russia’s pullback, the country remains vulnerable. Spurred by reports that Russian forces committed atrocities in areas surrounding the capital, NATO nations agreed to increase their supply of arms after he pleaded for weapons from the alliance and other sympathetic countries to help face down an expected offensive in the east.

The mayor of Bucha, near Kyiv, said investigators found at least three sites of mass shootings of civilians during the Russian occupation. Most victims died from gunshots, not from shelling, he said, and some corpses with their hands tied were “dumped like firewood” into mass graves, including one at a children’s camp.

Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said 320 civilians were confirmed dead as of Wednesday, but he expected more as bodies are found in the city that was home to 50,000 people. Only 3,700 remain, he said.

In his nightly address, Zelensky said Bucha’s horrors may be only the beginning. In the northern city of Borodianka, just 30 kilometers (20 miles) northwest of Bucha, he warned of even more casualties, saying “there it is much more horrible.”

Ukrainian officials said earlier this week that the bodies of 410 civilians were found in towns around the capital. Volunteers have spent days collecting the corpses, and more were picked up Thursday in Bucha.

In the seaport city of Mariupol, Ukranian authorities expect to find much the same. “The same cruelty. The same terrible crimes,” Zelensky said.

Ukrainian and several Western leaders have blamed the massacres on Moscow’s troops. The weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported Germany’s foreign intelligence agency intercepted radio messages among Russian soldiers discussing killings of civilians. Russia has falsely claimed that the scenes in Bucha were staged.

In the 6-week-old war, Russian forces failed to take Ukraine’s capital quickly and were unable to fulfill what Western countries said was Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s initial aim of ousting the Ukrainian government. After that setback, amid heavy losses, Russia shifted its focus to the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking, industrial region in eastern Ukraine where Moscow-backed rebels have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged Thursday that Russia has suffered major losses during its military operation.

“Yes, we have significant losses of troops and it is a huge tragedy for us,” Peskov said.

Peskov also hinted the fighting might be over “in the foreseeable future,” telling Sky that Russian troops were “doing their best to bring an end to that operation.”

On Thursday, a day after Russian forces began shelling their village in the southern Mykolaiv region, Sergei Dubovienko, 52, drove north in his small blue Lada with his wife and mother-in-law to Bashtanka, where they sought shelter in a church.

“They started destroying the houses and everything” in Pavlo-Marianovka, he said. “Then the tanks appeared from the forest. We thought that in the morning there would be shelling again, so I decided to leave.”

Hundreds of people have fled villages in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions that are either under attack or occupied by Russian forces.

Tatiana Vizavik, 50, fled Chernobaievka in the Kherson region with her son, daughter-in-law and six grandchildren.

When the Russian attack began, they moved to the basement of an apartment building and spent five nights there. “We had nothing to eat. We had no drinking water,” Vizavik said. “We were frightened to go out. Then some volunteers starting helping us.”

She said they don’t know whether their house survived the shelling because they were too frightened to check before leaving town. They hoped to reach safety in the Czech Republic.

Marina Morozova and her husband fled from Kherson, the first major city to fall to the Russians.

“They are waiting for a big battle. We saw shells that did not explode. It was horrifying,” she said.

Morozova, 69, said only Russian television and radio was available. The Russians handed out humanitarian aid, she said, and filmed the distribution.

Anxious to keep moving away from Russian troops, the couple and others boarded a van that would take them west. Some will try to leave the country, while others will remain in quieter parts of Ukraine.
The United Nations estimates the war has displaced at least 6.5 million people within the country.

The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said that more than 4 million, half of them children, have left Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24 and sparked Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.

The International Organization for Migration estimates more than 12 million people are stranded in areas of Ukraine under attac

The United Nations’ humanitarian chief told The Associated Press on Thursday that he’s “not optimistic” about securing a cease-fire after meeting with officials in Kyiv and in Moscow this week, given the lack of trust between the sides. He spoke hours after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Ukraine of backtracking on proposals it had made over Crimea and Ukraine’s military status.

It’s unclear how long withdrawing Russian forces will take to redeploy. Ukrainian officials have urged people in the east to leave before the fighting intensifies there.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Ukrainian and Russian officials agreed to establish civilian evacuation routes Thursday from several areas in the Donbas.

Western nations have stepped up sanctions, and the Group of Seven major world powers warned that they will keep adding measures until Russian troops leave Ukraine.

The U.S. Congress voted Thursday to suspend normal trade relations with Russia and ban the importation of its oil, while the EU approved other new steps, including an embargo on coal imports. The U.N. General Assembly, meanwhile, voted to suspend Russia from the world organization’s leading human rights body.

U.S. President Joe Biden said the U.N. vote demonstrated how “Putin’s war has made Russia an international pariah.” He called the images coming from Bucha “horrifying.”

“The signs of people being raped, tortured, executed — in some cases having their bodies desecrated — are an outrage to our common humanity,” Biden said.

SPONSORED APPEAL: HELP FEED UKRAINIAN JEWS FOR PASSOVER

https://www.israel365news.com/268026/ukraines-nazi-soldiers-using-synagogues-as-cover-for-military-activity/?+indicates
UKRAINE’S ‘NAZI’ SOLDIERS USING SYNAGOGUES AS COVER FOR MILITARY ACTIVITY
BY DAVID SIDMAN | MAR 31, 2022 | UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR

O mortal, turn your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Prophesy against him Ezekiel 38:2 (The Israel BibleTM)
'The holy tombstone of the rabbi rabbi nachman of breslov' in uman in ukraine (Shutterstock)
Share this article
The Ukrainian army used a synagogue in Uman, Ukraine, as a gathering and ammo storage depot to fight Russia. On Wednesday, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov told the Tass News Agency told the Tass News Agency on Wednesday.

Uman is considered a holy site by many Jews as the revered Rabbi Nachman of Breslov is buried there. Every year on Rosh Hashannah, thousands of Jews worldwide make a pilgrimage to the site as he once instructed his students to do.

Konashenkov accused Zelensky of violating international humanitarian law and fundamental immorality. The Kremlin official accused Ukraine of exploiting houses of worship and other places of public worship as gathering and transfer points for weapons. He added that Ukraine’s Nazi troops are leading the initiative.

“Today, we are presenting evidence received from an Uman Jewish community member that the Zelensky regime used the building of the new city synagogue, located at 1 Shosseiny Lane, for this purpose,” Konashenkov revealed.

The Defense Ministry released images taken the day after Zelensky’s speech to the Israeli Knesset. Konashenkov emphasized that “two nationalist columns” on the synagogue’s property were caught on camera.

“I draw your attention to the fact that the nationalists initially loaded the property, weapons, and ammunition stored in the synagogue into dump trucks and then disguised as bags containing construction debris.”

He said that the Ukrainian military also transported both nationalists and foreign mercenaries from western Ukraine to the premises. This included “buses with school vehicle markings and featuring signs written ‘Children’ on them are being used, as can be clearly seen in the photographs,” the major general warned.

“The Kyiv nationalist regime is purposely exploiting a site of Jewish worship in Uman for military purposes to instigate a conflict and political pressure by Jewish religious organizations on Russia if it were fired on,” he added.

Konashenkov noted how “on March 20, Zelensky complained to the Israeli Knesset, accusing Russia of allegedly striking the Uman. “For a dramatic effect, Zelensky stated, ‘this is a place that tens of thousands of Israelis visit every year on pilgrimage.'”.

Konashenkov emphasized that the Russian military doesn’t target civilian sites, houses of worship, or any other places of public worship.

https://www.israelunwired.com/russia-changes-goals-as-putins-war-aims-are-stalled/?
RUSSIA CHANGES GOALS AS PUTIN’S WAR AIMS ARE STALLED
written by David Mark March 26, 2022 698 views
With Russian troops yet to take Kiev and Kharkiv thanks to NATO weaponry and intelligence aiding Ukrainian defenses, Putin has decided to change his aims in Ukraine.

Retired U.S. general on Russia’s strategic shift in Ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh1U5abIB_g

Although there was much speculation that the original intent of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine was all about regime change in Kiev, what is apparent now is that Russia has decided to only focus on the Donbass in the east. By refocusing his army on taking over the rest of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, Putin appears to aiming for a face saving victory.

“The combat potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been considerably reduced, which … makes it possible to focus our core efforts on achieving the main goal, the liberation of Donbass,” said Sergei Rudskoi, head of the Russian General Staff’s Main Operational Directorate.

From the beginning the idea of taking and holding Kiev felt detached from reality, but the Donbass has always been in his reach. Currently the main focus of the Russian army is switching to finally taking over Mariupol, a strategic port city. If Mariupol falls then Russia will be able to connect Crimea directly to Russia.


At the same time Russia is trying to pivot to a smaller victory, NATO continues to ratchet up the rhetoric. Biden was in Poland for a NATO conference, where he called Putin a butcher and advocated for regime change. With Russia attempting to wind things down, NATO has quickly found itself in need of a far more expansive war.

https://worldisraelnews.com/congressman-says-israels-lack-of-support-for-ukraine-could-determine-aid/?utm_source=jeeng
Congressman warns: Israel’s ‘lack of support’ for Ukraine puts US aid at risk
 March 25, 2022
Congressman warns: Israel’s ‘lack of support’ for Ukraine puts US aid at riskRep. Adam Kinzinger, (R-Ill.), July 27, 2021. (AP Photo/ Andrew Harnik, Pool, File)
“Our leverage is in the world uniting in sanctions … and Israel doesn’t have a special exemption.
By JNS.org
A Republican member of Congress suggested that future aid to Israel from the United States could be at stake if Israel does not begin supporting Ukraine against its invasion by Russia.

On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the Knesset, where he criticized Israel’s neutrality on the conflict, preferring to mediate between the two sides.
His main questions were why Israel has not joined the West’s sanctions regime against Russia and if the Jewish state could provide use of the Iron Dome missile-defense systems.

Retweeting a summary of Zelensky’s speech by an Israeli journalist, outgoing Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) tweeted that Israel’s reaction to Ukraine should have an effect on future aid from the United States.

Despite criticism, Kinzinger later doubled down on the ultimatum in more detail, while clarifying his support for Israel.

“I deeply support our relationship with Israel. But supporting friends doesn’t mean we look past differences,” he tweeted. “We have stood with Israel and will continue to do so. But at the moment, there is a battle between good and evil—between a world based on raw power or one based on the post-World War II rules. Everyone must pick a side.
“The outcome of this fight,” he continued, “will impact the world my son grows up in, and now is the time to call anyone to the carpet who does not do their utmost. If we don’t want to directly attack Russia, then our leverage is in the world uniting in sanctions and assistance for the people of Ukraine. This includes everyone, and Israel doesn’t have a special exemption.”
Kinzinger is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The lawmaker’s statements met with a mix of support and criticism with some pointing out the number of refugees Israel has taken in, as well as aid such as erecting a field hospital across the Ukraine-Poland border.

Zelensky’s speech had a mixed reception in pro-Israel circles.
International-law expert Eugene Kontorovich hit back on Zelensky’s attempt to guilt Israel to support Ukraine.

“How dare you lecture Israel about its national moral responsibility and urge it to take on additional dangers. As we speak, the West is about to give genocidal Jew-killers a nuclear bomb. Have you ever spoken out against this?” he tweeted.

“As the leader of a country that was the site of some of the greatest Jew massacres, in which your countrymen were all too often eager perpetrators, don’t you have a ‘moral duty’ to use your newly minted celebrity to call out the Iran deal? No, got your hands full? Us, too.”

(WATCH) Thousands of Ukrainian civilians deported against their will to Russia in Nazi-Like purge
Amid a growing consensus that Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is morphing into a bloody stalemate that could last months, the embattled strategic city of Mariupol rejected a Russian demand to surrender Monday even after the bombing of a local art school where officials said hundreds of people had taken shelter.
Russia said Ukrainian troops would be allowed safe passage out of the city in two designated corridors if Mariupol surrendered by 5 a.m.
Continue reading (WATCH) Thousands of Ukrainian civilians deported against their will to Russia in Nazi-Like purge at End Time Headlines.
Read on » https://endtimeheadlines.org/2022/03/watch-thousands-of-ukrainian-civilians-deported-against-their-will-to-russia-in-nazi-like-purge/

Two Ukrainians Discover They’re Sisters while Fleeing to Israel.March 21, 2022 | by Dr. Yvette Alt 
Valentina and Mariana Varshavky discover they have the same father on their way to Israel.
Since Russia launched its brutal invasion of Ukraine last month, over three million desperate Ukrainians have fled their country; more than 12,000 Ukrainians have found refuge in Israel. Last week, two women who joined this exodus made a startling discovery on the way.

Valentina Varshavky and Mariana Varshavky have many things in common: they were both born in Kyiv; both are Jewish, and they share the same last name. Valentina and Marina each have a child who felt a strong pull to live in Israel and who moved to the Jewish state. As rockets rained down on Kyiv, both Valentina and Mariana fled their besieged city on the very same day, finding refuge in Poland, where they each made plans to go to Israel to join their children and rebuild their shattered lives.

Mariana Varshavky is a 53-year-old psychologist. Her parents divorced when she was young. After her father remarried, he lost touch with Mariana and her mother. Mariana’s son Pavel, now 26, always dreamed of living in Israel and moved there in 2018. He lives in Ramat Gan.

Valentina Varshavky, 46, worked as a banker in Kyiv until last month. She and her husband have two children: 13-year-old Masha, and an older son, Nikita, 23, who moved to Israel when he was 17 years old and lives in Haifa.

With a 40-mile long convoy of Russian troops racing towards Kyiv in the early stages of the war, Mariana and Valentina knew they had to flee. (In recent days, Kyiv has come under heavy bombardment.) The two women made it over the border into Poland, where they each contacted the Jewish Agency, asking for help in moving to Israel. Mariana and Valentina, and Valentina’s daughter Masha, waited day after tense day in a Warsaw hotel, hoping for the moment when they could board a flight to the Jewish state.

A week and a half ago, they were finally cleared to go. They listened as a Jewish Agency employee read off their names and the names of 150 other Ukrainian refugees who were on their same flight to Israel. Mariana and Valentina heard their last name Varshavky being called and struck up a conversation, marveling at the coincidence of having the same surname. They soon realized with a shock that they had the same father.

Valentina, right, her daughter Masha, center, and Mariana

“I didn’t even know that I had another sister,” Valentina told reporters after making her startling discovery. “The most amazing thing is that amid all this chaos we found one another,” explained Mariana. “We thank the Jewish Agency, and we thank Israel and love Israel even more after our reunion in Warsaw. We got on the plane together, like one big family, and we’ll arrive in Israel. There we’ll introduce our sons to each other. What joy, what a miracle.”

On the day that Mariana and Valentina landed, March 9, 2022, they joined hundreds of other new immigrants to the Jewish state, hailing not only from Ukraine but also from Russia. “I never imagined I would end up doing what I am doing today. I’ve seen things I never thought I would see in my life, it’s like World War II, people sitting in lines for two days,” explained Shmuel Shpack, the Ukraine director for the Jewish Agency of Israel. In the face of overwhelming need, the Jewish Agency for Israel is doing all it can to help the tens of thousands of refugees who are clamoring to reach the Jewish state.

These refugees face daunting obstacles as they rebuild their lives. They need to learn a new language, find new jobs, and make new friends.

For Mariana and Valentina Varshavky and their families, creating new lives in Israel will be made much sweeter by knowing that they are doing it together with their newly discovered family.

To help support the Jewish Agency for Israel in resettling refugees, click here: https://www.jewishagency.org/

UKRAINE PRESIDENT ALIENATES ISRAEL AFTER COMPARING RUSSIA INVASION TO HOLOCAUST
BY DAVID SIDMAN | MAR 21, 2022 | BIBLICAL NEWS

A false witness will not go unpunished; He who testifies lies will not escape. Proverbs 19:5 (The Israel BibleTM)


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses Israel's Knesset on March 20, 2022. Credit: Courtesy of screenshot
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky was accused of trivializing the Holocaust on Sunday after addressing the Israeli Knesset via zoom. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Benett denied Ukraine arm shipments but said he would continue mediation efforts between the two warring countries.

Zelensky’s zoom address was meant to rally the Israeli government to supply Kyiv with arms to fend off the Russian invasion. But his plea fell on deaf ears after he tried to compare Russia’s invasion to the Holocaust while emphasizing the rare instances of righteous gentiles in Ukraine who aided and abetted Jews during World War 2.

“This Russian invasion of Ukraine is not just a military operation as Moscow claims,” Zelensky said. “This is a large-scale and treacherous war aimed at destroying our people; destroying our children; our families; our state; our cities; our communities; our culture; and everything that makes Ukrainians, Ukrainians. Everything that Russian troops are now destroying, deliberately, in front of the whole world.”
“That is why I have the right to make this parallel and this comparison. Our history and your history. Our war for our survival and World War II.”
READ MORE https://www.israel365news.com/267656/zelensky-tries-to-convince-israel-to-send-arms-by-comparing-russian-invasion-to-holocaust-fails-miserably/?

Will Modern-Day Persia Get the Green Light to Destroy the Jews on Purim?
THIS PURIM; HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF AS IRAN EXPECTED TO GET NUKES, DESTROY ISRAEL
“Of course, they are pushing to get power but they really are not running things. Hashem is running world events, manipulating them to move us towards the prophetic conclusion. It is all written but these ‘leaders’ manage to miss the obvious.”
BY ADAM ELIYAHU BERKOWITZ | MAR 16, 2022 | BIBLICAL NEWS
In the first month, that is, the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, pur—which means “the lot”—was cast before Haman concerning every day and every month, [until it fell on] the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar. Esther 3:7 (The Israel BibleTM)
On the eve of Purim, a signed agreement resurrecting the Iran deal looms imminent. For those who forgot, another lucrative agreement between a politician and a Persian ruler signed 2,500 years ago was also intended to annihilate the Jewish people. Still, it didn’t work out as planned.
REMOVING THE SANCTIONS
Rafael Grossi, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy, said in an interview with France 24 on Tuesday that as long as Russia receives written guarantees from the US that its demands will be met, all of the involved parties are on the verge of finalizing an agreement on the recent talks being held in Vienna.  As one of the parties in the deal, Russia demanded that a condition for signing would be removing the sanctions placed on them due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

This news comes after US officials insisted that the two issues would not be connected in the negotiations. 
“We need guarantees that sanctions [over Ukraine] will not affect in any way the regime of trade, economic and investment ties set out in the JCPOA on Iran’s nuclear program,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. “We asked our American colleagues (because they are running the whole show here) to give us guarantees in writing, at least at the level of the Secretary of State, that the current process launched by the U.S. will not impinge in any way on our free full-scale trade, economic, investment and military-technical cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

ASSURANCES FROM VENEZUELA
Russia also demanded the agreement include assurances from Venezuela to control oil prices. 
On Sunday, Iranian negotiators told the media that record-high global oil prices due to the Ukrainian conflict gave Iran the upper hand in the Vienna talks. It should use the opportunity to press its demands. 

In 2021, President Biden said the US would return to the deal if Iran comes back into compliance, though Iran’s leaders have insisted that Washington lift sanctions first. 

COINCIDING WITH PURIM
If the deal does get signed on Thursday or Friday, it will coincide with the holiday of Purim (The holiday begins Wednesday evening and ends on Thursday evening, but in Jerusalem, it is celebrated 24 hours later). This would be remarkable as negotiations have been ongoing for 11 months. And, of course, the holiday of Purim commemorates the miraculous reversal, turning the existential threat from the Persian/Iranian government into divine salvation. 

A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
Rabbi Pinchas Winston, a prolific end-of-days author, weighed the possibility of a successful Iran deal with stability. 

“If you give Biden a penny for his thoughts, you better ask for change,” Rabbi Winston quipped. “They are clearly not thinking this through. They could have chosen any day of the year to sign this deal, but pushing to sign an anti-Israel deal with Iran on Purim displays total ignorance. It is astounding. But that is typical of the enemies of Israel.”

“In this case, the Iran deal is, of course, a direct existential threat to Israel. But now that the negotiations have revealed the battle lines, Iran and Russia allying together, it is obvious, or at least it should be, that this endangers the entire world.”

“Of course, they are pushing to get power, but they really are not running things. Hashem is running world events, manipulating them to move us towards the prophetic conclusion. It is all written, but these leaders manage to miss the obvious.”
“Anyone can see that everything is falling into place,” Rabbi Winston said.
READ MORE » https://www.israel365news.com/267537/this-purim-history-repeats-itself-as-iran-expected-to-get-nukes-to-try-to-destroy-israel/?
NASA Blindsided as Surprise Asteroid Lands Near Iceland

https://www.israelunwired.com/here-is-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-conflict-with-russia-and-ukraine/?
Zelensky Set to Address Israeli Parliament Next Week; US CENTCOM: Iran Has 3,000 Ballistic Missiles, Many Can Reach Jewish State
HERE IS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE CONFLICT WITH RUSSIA AND UKRAINE
written by Phil Schneider March 16, 2022 1812 views
The two countries Russia and Ukraine have a long and tangled past. For many years, they were one unit. For many years, they were separated. The one common denominator that seems to have held for centuries is that the status quo did no hold in the region for very long. Over and over again, Ukraine was invaded and changed hands.
Perhaps it is the location of the Ukraine – on the crossroads of Asia and Europe. Perhaps it is the fact that the land of the Ukraine is rich and excellent for growing wheat. The Ukraine has been labeled the breadbasket of Asia and Europe for a reason.

Everything You Need to Know About the Russia/Ukraine Conflict
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SQhT-hg7e4 

But in today’s day ad age, Putin seems bothered by the encroachment of NATO on his western borders. Moreover, Vladimir Putin seems driven by a goal to create a new Russian Empire. And for that, he most definitely needs to take over the wealth and land of the Ukraine in order to influence economies all over the world.

But are there other things going on beneath the surface that have not yet been revealed? Is the fact that Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, is deeply invested in Ukraine, via his monetization efforts of his father’s position, also a factor? Probably. Is Putin concerned about China’s growing world influence? Probably.

But the greatest factor is that all of the military might of the United States was powerless to keep Afghanistan from falling apart and back in the hands of the Taliban. So, the brutal dictators of the world, both small and large, raised an eyebrow. No matter what other underlying reasons may exist, the factor of a weak President in the Oval Office was probably the #1 factor.


https://www.israelunwired.com/it-has-begun-russian-troops-enter-kiev/?
IT HAS BEGUN: RUSSIAN TROOPS ENTER KIEV
written by Micha Gefen March 15, 2022 4263 views
Share on Facebook
Tweet
Reports are coming in that Russian troops have started entering the outskirts of Kiev, Ukraine’s capital.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSf4imX5Xvk
BOOST THIS VIDEO

Explosions can be heard in various areas of Kiev and troops are moving in, just 2 kilometers from President Zalensky. In response to the possible Kiev invasion, Ukraine has ordered a curfew.

For Russia, Kiev is important as it is the cultural birthplace for Russia as well as being a modern metropolis.

Unfortunately for Ukraine – Putin never intended in a swift are and has done a great job cutting of supply lines into the city.
so will Russia really invade Kiev. Everything certain does.

Putin and His One-Man War
by Amir Taheri  •  March 13, 2022 at 4:00 am
It is hard to know what went on in Putin's mind. But the past two weeks have shown that he has planned his war according to KGB rules rather than classical military strategy. He has relied on massive and indiscriminate use of force, and where Gerasimov and the professional military are concerned about losses among their men, he has been focused on wreaking as much havoc as he can.

His model is Ivan the Awe-Inspiring (Grozny). He wants to terrorize people into abject submission, as his forces did in parts of Syria where he and his allies hang on to an illusion of power.

In a classical war, the immediate aim is formulated with three words: conquer, cleanse, control. Putin's idiosyncratic style of war, however, measures success by the size of debris created and the piles of civilian dead left behind.

Even the aero-naval bases that Putin has secured on the Syrian coast of the Mediterranean remain vulnerable.

No war is won by one side unless the opposite side admits defeat, at least as the best of all bad options. This is, perhaps, why since 1945, no one has really won a war on a once-and-for-all basis.

But what Putin cannot do is to rebuild Ukraine as he pleases. Over 2,000 years ago, historian Tacitus quoted the Celtic resistance leader fighting Roman invaders as saying: They make a desert and call it peace!
It is hard to know what went on in Russian President Vladimir Putin's mind. But the past two weeks have shown that he has planned his war according to KGB rules rather than classical military strategy. Putin has relied on massive and indiscriminate use of force, and where Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov and the professional military are concerned about losses among their men, Putin has been focused on wreaking as much havoc as he can. Pictured: Putin (R) meets with Gerasimov (L) and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow on February 27, 2022. (Photo by Alexey Nikolsky /Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
When he launched his invasion of Ukraine over two weeks ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared like a man who knew what he was doing. In his televised session with the High Council of National Security, he gave the impression that he had a precise war plan with clear objectives.

Now, however, the possibility of that impression having been wrong cannot be dismissed. In other words: What if the Great Vladimir doesn't know what he is doing or, worse still, doesn't know what he wants?

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18324/putin-one-man-war

The Biggest Global Food Crisis Of Our Generation Is Coming
News Image BY MICHAEL SNYDER/ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG MARCH 10, 2022
Share this article:
facebook sharing button Sharetwitter sharing button Tweetemail sharing button Emailsms sharing button Shareprint sharing button Print
By the end of 2022, we are going to witness very serious shortages of food in many parts of the globe.  In fact, World Bank President David Malpass is openly admitting that we are now facing "a huge supply shock" as a result of the war in Ukraine.  

Of course we were already moving into a global food crisis even before the war erupted.  

According to the UN, worldwide food prices in February 2022 were 20.7 percent higher than they were in February 2021, fertilizer prices have gone absolutely nuts, crop production is down all over the planet due to crazy weather patterns, and supply chain problems caused by the pandemic continue to create ongoing headaches.  

But now that Russia has invaded Ukraine, that is going to push this rapidly growing global food crisis to a level that none of us have ever seen before.
 
Under normal conditions, Ukraine exports tremendous amounts of food and is considered to be one of the most important "breadbaskets" on the entire planet.

Unfortunately, everything has changed now, and this has pushed the global price of wheat up 55 percent since a week before the invasion happened...

Ukrainian farmers have been forced to neglect their fields as millions flee, fight or try to stay alive. Ports are shut down that send wheat and other food staples worldwide to be made into bread, noodles and animal feed. And there are worries Russia, another agricultural powerhouse, could have its grain exports upended by Western sanctions.

While there have not yet been global disruptions to wheat supplies, prices have surged 55% since a week before the invasion amid concerns about what could happen next. If the war is prolonged, countries that rely on affordable wheat exports from Ukraine could face shortages starting in July, International Grains Council director Arnaud Petit told The Associated Press.

I really don't like that "shortages starting in July" part.

That definitely sounds rather ominous.

Right now, the global price of food is the highest that it has ever been, and Russia and Ukraine normally account for "nearly a third of the world's wheat and barley exports".

Now that exports from Russia will be greatly reduced and exports from Ukraine will be virtually non-existent, some countries will almost immediately be facing extreme stress.

For example, just consider Lebanon.  The Lebanese normally get 60 percent of their wheat from Ukraine...

War-ravaged Syria recently announced it would cut spending and ration staples. In nearby Lebanon, where a massive explosion at the Beirut port in 2020 destroyed the country's main grain silos, authorities are scrambling to make up for a predicted wheat shortage, with Ukraine providing 60% of its supply. They are in talks with the U.S., India and Canada to find other sources for a country already in financial meltdown.

Very high food prices caused riots all over the Middle East in 2011, and now we are moving into a food crisis that will be far greater than anything that we experienced back then.

Things are going to be very challenging in Europe as well, because Ukraine normally provides almost 60 percent of the corn that Europeans use...

Ukraine supplies the EU with just under 60% of its corn and nearly half of a key component in the grains needed to feed livestock.

Meanwhile, crops all over the world are in surprisingly poor shape because weather conditions have been so strange.

Earlier today, I was stunned to learn that it is being projected that China's winter wheat crop could be "the worst in history"...

The condition of China's winter wheat crop could be the "worst in history", the agriculture minister said on Saturday, raising concerns about grain supplies in the world's biggest wheat consumer.

And the USDA is reporting that a whopping 71 percent of all winter wheat in the United States has been affected by drought...

A limited supply of soft white wheat, the primary type of wheat grown in the Inland Northwest, has helped lead to a six-year low for wheat exports from the United States. That's according to the USDA wheat report for February. The report also states that 71 percent of U.S. winter wheat is being hit by drought in 2022.


We struggle to feed the entire world even in the best of years, and this definitely is not going to be one of the best of years.

Another factor that is going to drive up the cost of food is soaring energy prices.  Gas prices seem to be rising almost daily.

Consumers are paying 50 cents more than a week ago, and 67 cents more than a month ago.

Of course the price of gasoline is much higher in some parts of the nation than in others.

For example, at one gas station in Los Angeles consumers are now paying about seven dollars a gallon to fill up their vehicles...

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County rose to $5.247 on Saturday, but some gas stations in the area have even higher prices.

The Shell gas station located at Olympic Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in Mid-City was advertising regular unleaded at $6.99 a gallon. The price for premium was listed at $7.29 a gallon.

I suppose that I should stop warning about "seven dollars a gallon" for gasoline, because it is already here.  So many of the things that I have warned about have already happened, and things are only going to get worse from here.

In fact, I think that it won't be too long before some Americans are paying ten dollars for a gallon of gasoline.

Would do you think that will do to our economy?

This war is going to end up deeply affecting every man, woman and child on the entire planet.

If you were waiting for things to "return to normal", you can stop waiting, because a perfect storm has arrived and things are definitely not going to be "normal" for the foreseeable future.

Originally published at The Economic Collapse Blog - reposted with permission.

Ukraine Crisis: The Next Biden Defeat?
by Guy Millière  •  March 9, 2022 at 5:00 am

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Send Print
The only credible military force in Europe is the US army, and the essential decisions for the defense of Europe are taken in Washington, DC.

Cyberattacks from Russia affected hundreds of American companies during 2021, but elicited virtually no reaction from the Biden administration apart from more concessions to Russia, such as the extension of the New START treaty, for which the US got nothing, and the exorbitant gift to Putin of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany and Europe.

Since Biden enacted restrictions on US domestic oil and gas exploration, production, refinement and transport, the increased prices of oil and gas have been hugely increasing Russia's revenues.

May 19, 2021, four months after terminating the Keystone XL pipeline, Biden lifted the sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, thereby presenting Putin with yet another huge gift...

Reports now detail that the Biden administration is on the verge of signing what commentators have called a "surrender pact" -- negotiated for the US by the same Russia that is currently threatening America with nuclear war. The new deal will reportedly not only enable Iran to have nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to deliver them, but also, by "laundering" Russian oil and gas, to bypass whatever economic sanctions the US might impose on it. The deal would also reportedly take Iran off the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations and have Iran sell its oil to the US.

The humiliating debacle that the Biden administration unleashed on the United States in Afghanistan showed all enemies of the West the incompetence of the administration and its ability to inflict strategic and geopolitical disaster on the US.

"I need ammunition, not a ride." — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, February 26, 2022.

Biden, after enacting restrictions on American domestic oil and gas exploration, production, refinement and transport, is now trying to claim it is "simply not true" that he is holding back US energy... US sanctions have not affected Russia's energy production, nor encouraged the Biden administration to increase production of cleaner and cheaper energy in America. Instead, the administration is exploring purchasing oil at spiking prices from the hostile dictatorship in Venezuela -- rather than providing jobs and affordable energy at home.

Biden could have decided on a fuel embargo against Russia; oil and gas are Russia's main sources of revenue. Instead, he is sanctioning the American energy sector. Reinstating the Keystone XL pipeline permit could quickly allow the United States to replace Russian oil with increased imports from Canada.

What everyone can see is that the great power status of the United States, already badly damaged by the Biden administration over the past 14 months, has been damaged even more. The US has not deterred Russia from acting in Ukraine, and has not even slowed down or interrupted Russia's aggression. There was no "resolute, massive, and united Transatlantic response." There has not even been a resolute and massive American response.

The result of so much US risk-aversion could well lead to further attacks against other countries by Russia, China and Iran.

"[D]eterrence was lost with Biden's weakness... Only strength deters war; weakness begets it. President Xi Jinping, Chairman Kim, the Ayatollah – they and others like them are watching..." — Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, January 24, 2022.

"We prepared extensively and carefully," Biden said in his State of the Union address on March 1. Could the result have been worse if his administration had not prepared at all?


Since President Biden enacted restrictions on US domestic oil and gas exploration, production, refinement and transport, the increased prices of oil and gas have been hugely increasing Russia's revenues. Now the administration is exploring purchasing oil at spiking prices from the hostile dictatorship in Venezuela -- rather than providing jobs and affordable energy at home. (Image source: iStock)
November 13, 2021. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that Russia has sent troops to Ukraine's border and that there are now nearly 100,000 Russian soldiers there. Three weeks later, on December 7, US President Joe Biden calls Russian President Vladimir Putin. The transcript of the conversation has not been made public, but National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan described Biden's remarks:

"He reiterated America's support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. He told President Putin directly that if Russia further invades Ukraine, the United States and our European allies would respond with strong economic measures." [Emphasis added]

more https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18311/ukraine-biden-defeat

Bennett Violates Shabbat to Broker Peace Between Ukraine and Russia

“And regarding the question of breaking the Sabbath: Instead of involving such important strategic and security interests of the state of Israel - mainly regarding the activities of the IDF in Syria - it seems clear to me that the Prime Minister of Israel should act on Shabbat as well.”
READ MORE »
https://www.israel365news.com/267113/bennett-violates-shabbat-to-broker-peace-between-ukraine-and-russia/?

Rescuing 100 Jews in Ukraine on Shabbat.March 3, 2022 | by Dr. Yvette Alt MillerFacebookEmailPrintFriendlyShare

Rabbi Nisan Podolsky is rescuing Jews from Ukraine.

I’m in Belarus,” explains Rabbi Nisan Podolsky, just days after escaping from war-ravaged Ukraine. “We’re still working on getting more people out. We’re not resting here.”

In an Aish.com interview, Rabbi Podolsky recounted the harrowing trip he and a hundred other Jews made last Shabbat as they escaped from Ukraine.

Born in Jerusalem, Rabbi Podolsky is a member of the Karlin-Stolin hasidic group that was founded in the 1700s in present-day Belarus. Known for their piety, hospitality, and devotion in prayer, these hasidic Jews live in Israel and around the world, while Rabbi Boruch Meir Yaakov Shochet, their rebbe, resides in Jerusalem. In the years since the end of Communism, some Jews in Belarus and Ukraine have revived the region’s once-vibrant community.

Rabbi Podolsky teachng a group of students in Kyiv

In Kyiv, they have flourished. “We have shuls, schools, and a dormitory yeshiva,” Rabbi Podolsky explains. Rabbi Podolsky lived in Kyiv with his wife Shevy and their six children; the youngest two are 10-week-old twin girls. They joined over a hundred other Karlin-Stolin Jews in Kyiv, including 50 students in the community’s schools. Other Jews would “pop in once in a while to community events to feel a Jewish connection.”

As Russia built up its troops along Ukraine’s borders throughout February, many Ukrainians refused to believe their neighbor would actually invade. Residents in Kyiv, the capital, knew they would be the prime target of any invasion, but the thought that their country would actually come under attack seemed impossible.

In Jerusalem, Rabbi Shochet took the threat of a Russian invasion seriously. He sent an urgent message to Rabbi Podolsky telling him that he and his whole community must leave Kyiv immediately.

At the time, people were looking at us like we were crazy,” Rabbi Podolsky recalls. Their neighbors asked, “Why are you leaving the city? It looks okay.” Undaunted, Rabbi Podolsky and hundred other Karlin-Stolin Jews moved from Kyiv to the small village of Medzhybizh in Ukraine where they thought they wouldn’t be a prime target.

Evacuating a Torah Scroll

Medzhybizh is more west than Kyiv and smaller, so it felt safer,” Rabbi Podolsky notes. Medzhybizh is the birthplace of the Baal Shem Tov, (c1699-1760), the founder of the hasidic movement. For that reason, many Jewish tourists visit the town. “We rented out the big kosher hotel that’s there for the Jewish tourists who come.”

For two weeks, he and his congregants – students, adults and entire families – waited to see if Russia would invade. Local residents thought the group of Jews awaiting an invasion seemed crazy.

On Thursday, February 24, the invasion began. “I woke up very early that morning,” Rabbi Podolsky recalls. “I checked the news and heard that President Putin was giving a speech. I knew something was going to happen. At 6 AM I went outside and saw planes flying overhead and heard explosions in the distance.” He knew that remaining in Ukraine – even in a small town like Mezhyrich – was no longer safe.

We started to think about our options.” The group had several cars with them, but not enough to take everyone to safety. They chartered a bus with a driver, but instead of reporting for work, the driver raced to check on his own family once the invasion began. The Jews in Medzhybizh were stranded.



Friday came and amid the ongoing war, Rabbi Podolsky started making plans for Shabbat. “The roads were all blocked; there were checkpoints.” It seemed their driver would never return. The driver finally returned and Rabbi Podolsky knew they had to leave immediately. Driving or traveling in a bus on Shabbat is prohibited but when human life is at stake, it’s permissible. After double-checking with another rabbi that this was indeed a matter of life and death, Rabbi Podolsky urged his congregants to get onto the bus. “We left half an hour after candle lighting… we had a whole convoy of the bus and cars.”

The trip was harrowing. They stopped at checkpoints and shared the roads with tanks and cannons. In the distance they heard shooting. “It was really scary; we were in the middle of a war,” Rabbi Podolslky recalls. The terrified Jews recited the Shabbat evening prayers on the bus that was their only hope for freedom, welcoming in Shabbat and making Kiddush.

They headed to Belarus. “It sounded crazy because everyone was trying to drive to the European Union,” Rabbi Podoslky recalls. Belarus is closely allied with Russia: they speculated that the guards on the Belarusian border might not be expecting refugees and would let them through, but they couldn’t be sure. “When our convoy finally arrived at the Belarusian border at 2 AM, the guards opened the gates for us. We were finally safe.” Hours later, the Belarus border was closed.

Jews in Ukraine safely arriving

Local Jews had reserved hotel rooms near the border and supplied them with Shabbat food, challah and wine. It was an emotional moment. One member of the group recited the Jewish prayer of thanksgiving, said after experiencing a narrow, life-saving escape, and the entire congregation responded with a heartfelt Amen.

This group of Jews has moved on to the Belarusian city of Pinsk, where the local Karlin-Stolin community is putting them up. Rabbi Podolsky is continuing to bring more Jews out of Ukraine. “I got four buses out today to Moldova,” he said during an Aish.com interview on Wednesday, March 2. “We’re still bringing people out of Kyiv – I’m on the phone right now with an elderly lady trying to convince her that it will be okay, that the journey will be okay.” Even with Kyiv and other key Ukrainian cities coming under siege by Russian forces, Rabbi Podolsky refuses to give up his life-saving work.

People are asking for help. We’re working on arranging buses.” He notes that it’s incredibly difficult to find drivers willing to risk their lives to ferry refugees to safety, and the cost of hiring drivers is tremendous. Once refugees are out of Ukraine, they require assistance. “Everyone left everything behind,” Rabbi Podolsky explains.

Rabbi Podolsky has set up an emergency fund to help his life-saving work rescue Ukrainian Jews. To donate, go to: https://thechesedfund.com/Kyiv

Aish Ukraine Briefing

Dr. Yvette Alt Miller

More from this Author >
Dr. Alt Miller lives with her family in Chicago, and has lectured internationally on Jewish topics. Her book Angels at the table: a Practical Guide to Celebrating Shabbat takes readers through the rituals of Shabbat and more, explaining the full beautiful spectrum of Jewish traditions with warmth and humor. It has been praised as "life-changing", a modern classic, and used in classes and discussion groups around the world.

https://www.israelunwired.com/russia-takes-kherson-no-fly-zone/?
RUSSIA CAPTURES KHERSON AND BESIEGES KIEV – IS A NO FLY ZONE COMING FOR UKRAINE?
written by David Mark March 2, 2022 2810 views
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been on record asking NATO to place a no-fly zone over Ukraine. According to reports, President Biden turned it down.
RUMBLE VIDEO
Boost This Video
The reason for Biden’s rebuff is that a no-fly zone over Ukraine adds up to American fighter jets engaging directly with Russia, essentially turning the Russia-Ukraine standoff into World War Three, which would become nuclear fast.

However, more and more calls are coming in from across the world for NATO to do something. After all, why have such a formidable military if one isn’t ready to use it.

On Capitol Hill, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) tweeted Friday that the U.S. should “declare a #NoFlyZone over Ukraine” to disrupt Russia’s air operations and “give the heroic Ukrainians a fair fight.”


For now NATO refuses to do anything more than supply some weapons to the Zelensky government.

“We have no intentions of moving into Ukraine neither on the ground or in the airspace,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told MSNBC on Monday. “We have a responsibility to make sure that this doesn’t spiral out of control that escalates even further into concern for full-fledged war in Europe involving NATO allies.”

Reports are also streaming in that Belarus President Viktor Lukashenko has given the green light for Putin to move Russia’s nukes to his country. Belarus has also committed troops to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Russia has now begin laying siege to Kiev. This is after reports have come in that the Russian army successfully captured the southern city of Kherson, coming closer to Putin’s objective of creating a land link between Crimea and the Eastern Donbass.



Approximate areas that are under Russian control. Source – GOOGLE and the Institute for the Study of War
The longer the Russian offensive takes and the more civilian deaths are reported as well as jarring videos of mass bombings, there will be increasing calls for NATO to take an interventionist role. And as mentioned above that almost certainly means World War Three.

The real question, why the push in the first place? No one talked about a no-fly zone when Russia leveled Chechnya from 1999 to 2000 or invaded Georgia or took Crimea in 2014. This of course was a war that the West could have help to avoid. They have been arming Ukraine to the teeth and toying with the idea of adding Ukraine to NATO.

No one disputes what Putin is doing is illegal, but NATO and the USA, which is its patron, were warned since the early 2000’s that expanding NATO closer and closer to Russia, would eventually elicit the sort of war Putin is now waging.

If the West knew this, then why did they do it? Why sacrifice Ukraine to some sort of Post Cold War game they are playing with Russia?


The answer is control. The West is dying. It lacks a purpose; a reason to exist. Its leaders who are essentially bureaucrats, sense that their control is slipping. They lost faith with the public over the corona pathogen; a trumped up pandemic they wanted to use for their economic Great Reset.

The public turned on them and so now, a war, which is essentially NATO’s proxy war with the Russian Federation. This war is giving them the purpose they claim they are meant for. But if Putin was another Hitler, why give him an inch? Why allow him to just take control of Ukraine? Isn’t NATO meant to stop aggression just like this?

NATO needs a villain to have a reason to exist. And now Putin is that villain. In the 21st century game of global control, the wars that are fought are rarely for ideology, but rather between elite groupings of corporate leadership combined with with each side’s military machine. Nothing is truly pure in today’s wars.

So NATO’s war is in a way meant to build up Putin’s image as the archetype of the Shadow as Carl Jung would put it. But the brilliance of the strategy is that it is in fact the elite of the West which may be the real Shadow – attempting to take more and more control of their populace by means of the media and Big Tech.


War is ugly. People die in war. The West is hoping that Putin stops in Ukraine, but unfortunately NATO’s war may actually spiral out of control and pull the rest of the world into it. If so, the scale of death and destruction will be unthinkable and all could have been avoided if the thirst for power within the global elite was quenched long ago.

KHERSONKIEVNATONO FLY ZONEPUTINRUSSIA




https://www.israelunwired.com/russia-violates-swedish-airspace/?
RUSSIA VIOLATES SWEDISH AIRSPACE, THREAT OF EXPANDED WAR INCREASES
written by David Mark March 3, 2022 753 views
As fighting rages in Ukraine, Finland and Sweden appear ready to join NATO. In response, Putin threatened that there would be consequences if they do. To make that point clear, Russia sent its own fighter jets into Swedish airspace – a direct violation of Swedish sovereignty.
Russian Warplanes Just Violated Swedish Airspace, Latvia Votes For Its Citizens To Join Ukraine Side
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1j0xH52Nxk

The Swedish armed forces reported that four Russian fighter jets briefly entered into Swedish territory over the Baltic Sea on Wednesday.

The Russian violation of Swedish airspace is of course completely unacceptable,” Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist told news agency TT. “It will lead to a firm diplomatic response from Sweden. Swedish sovereignty and territory must always be respected.”

The report by the Swedish armed forces stated that “two Russian SU27 and two SU24 fighter jets briefly entered Swedish airspace east of the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.”


With the potential for an even wider European war increasing, even one that turns nuclear, Russia’s violation of Swedish airspace appears to be a grave indication of where all of this is heading. If observers think that this will end with Putin turning his Russian tanks around – they better think again.

Putin appears to be pushing for an end to the West’s Post Cold War hegemony and is using Ukraine as a first step towards reestablishing Russia as a near invincible empire. Sweden and Finland may believe their best chance of survival is to join NATO, but in fact their application may doom them to the same fate as Ukraine.
In a world where the West is on decline and more worried about sending war memes over Instagram, it may be better to just lie low than awaken the Russian Bear.


https://www.israelunwired.com/video-exposes-fake-russia-ukraine-war-footage-spreading-on-social-media/?
VIDEO EXPOSES FAKE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR FOOTAGE SPREADING ON SOCIAL MEDIA
written by Leah Rosenberg March 3, 2022 4905 views

Those who follow Israel know that the media has been exaggerating and lying to the world about what happens in Israel for decades. So, it is not surprising that they would be providing us misinformation on what is happening in the Ukraine/Russia crisis as well. It seems impossible to know what information to trust!
On the other hand, there are so many people in the Ukraine with video cameras that are able to send out actual footage, that it is much more difficult to cover up a massive invasion like the one Russia has just done.

The truth about how serious the Russian invasion and killing in Kiev is will probably not take years to clarify. It will probably become more lear within a week or two. But don’t be surprised to find out that Russian and Ukrainian causalties have been far greater than the numbers we are hearing.

Putin thinks very carefully before acting and does care what information gets leaked out. Even if Ukrainians are being treated horribly now, that doesn’t turn the people of Ukraine into saints. The history of the entire region is filled with horrendous stories on both ends. But one thing is clear – the importance of the air waves and the internet in warfare has become far more important than at any time in history.


https://www.israelunwired.com/florida-gov-ron-desantis-highlights-the-hypocrisy-of-the-biden-administration/?
FLORIDA GOV. RON DESANTIS HIGHLIGHTS THE HYPOCRISY OF THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
written by Leah Rosenberg March 3, 2022 1847 views
Throughout the pandemic, Governor Ron DeSantis has governed Florida the way that the President of the United States should have governed the nation! He has listened to experts with a proper amount of skepticism and resisted vaccine mandates and other activities that would have severely limited freedom from the American people. He has separated scientific analysis from public policy very effectively. Once can argue both ways about Florida’s track record. But it is definitely too early to make a definitive judgement. So far, DeSantis’ record is looking quite good.

Gov. Ron Desantis and the Hypocrisy of Biden
Check out the complete hypocrisy of the Biden administration. They dropped the rule of masks inside for US leadership in DC, as exemplified at the State of the Union address. But then the rule still exists for others? Why do their rules exist for some, including kids in schools, when the leaders don’t have to follow the same rules? The same science applies to everyone indoors. Either everyone has to wear them indoors or no one does. All freedom-loving people who are still stuck with mask mandates around the world, like in Israel, would like to know. At least the governor of Florida, Ron Desantis, has things right!

Can you imagine what America would look like if he was president and running the show? Things would be different. There is a reason people have been vacationing and actually moving to Florida.

Enough of the hypocrisy from DC and the Biden admin!

https://aish.com/ukraines-president-volodymyr-zelensky-six-facts/?src=ac-txt
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky: Six Facts.March 1, 2022 | by Dr. Yvette Alt MillerFacebookEmailPrintFriendlyShare

Ukraine’s youthful and unconventional Jewish president is inspiring his nation.

As the war in Ukraine continues, many people around the world are rallying around President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s unconventional, Jewish, 44-year-old leader. Here are six facts about President Zelensky and the crisis in Ukraine today.

1. Grandson of Holocaust Survivors
Volodymyr Zelensky was born January 25, 1978 in Kryvyi Rih, a city in eastern Ukraine. His family is Jewish and, like many Ukrainian Jews, was scarred by the Holocaust. (Zelensky has often drawn attention to the fact that approximately a quarter of all Jews murdered in the Holocaust came from Ukraine, a fact that’s not widely understood.)

During World War II, the town of Kryvyi Rih was occupied by Nazi Germany. It was home to a sizeable Jewish community, and in the years before the Nazi takeover of the town, many Jews fled eastward. Zelensky’s grandmother was one of the Jews who left. “My grandmother was living in Kryvyi Rih, in a part of south Ukraine which was occupied by the fascists,” Zelensky explained. “They killed all the Jews who remained. She had left in an evacuation of Jews to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Many people fled to there. She studied there. She’s a teacher. After World II, she came back. That’s where I was born.”

Zelensky with his parents

In 2020, when Zelensky travelled to Israel to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, he told Israel’s then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stories about Ukraine during the Holocaust. Before he concluded, he said he had one more tale to tell, “about a family of four brothers”:

Three of them, their parents and their families became victims of the Holocaust. All of them were shot by German occupiers who invaded Ukraine. The fourth brother survived… Two years after the war, he had a son, and in 31 years, he had a grandson. In 40 more years, that grandson became president, and he is standing before you today, Mr. Prime Minister.

2. An “Ordinary Soviet Jewish Family”
Zelensky describes his family as “an ordinary Soviet Jewish family.” He noted that since most instances of religious expression were banned in the Soviet Union, his family was not particularly observant., but they were aware of their Jewish heritage.

His family moved to Mongolia for a time while he was young, but returned in time for Zelensky to attend school in Kryvyi Rih. He grew up with Russian as his first language, and also speaks fluent Ukrainian and English.

In the early 1990s, after the demise of the Soviet Union, many Soviet Jews rushed to emigrate, moving to Israel or the United States. Approximately 1.5 million Jews fled in those heady years. Zelensky’s great aunt and her family moved to Israel in the 1990s, but he and his immediate family remained, joining several hundred thousand Jews who chose to stay in Ukraine and Russia.



Zelensky attended the Kryvyi Rih Economic Institute, a branch of Kyiv National Economic University. He graduated in 2000 with a law degree. He met his wife, Olena Zelensky, a screenwriter and spokesperson for Ukrainian women’s rights, in college. (Olena Zelensky is not Jewish; Pres. Zelensky has not commented on unsubstantiated rumors that he converted to Christianity.) Their daughter Oleksandra was born in 2004 and their son Kyrylo was born in 2013.

3. Career as an Comic Actor
Zelensky never practiced law. He started acting in college and eventually founded his own production company called Kvartal 95 - “Neighborhood 95” - after the area in Kryvyi Rih where he grew up. He turned to comedy and became a hit throughout the former Soviet Union, performing stand up and acting in some comic films. In 2006, he won Ukraine’s “Strictly Come Dancing” television competition. He also performed in Israel. He told an Israeli newspaper he’d done shows in “Tel Aviv, in Beersheba, in Haifa, in Jerusalem. In so many cities. So I know Israel. I know people there.”



In 2015 Zelensky began starring in a Ukrainian television show Servant of the People. The year before, Ukraine’s unpopular President Viktor Yanukovych was forced out of office and Pres. Petro Poroshenko was elected instead. It was a tumultuous time in Ukrainian politics: Russia invaded and later annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014; Russian-backed insurgents battled Ukrainian forces in the republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in the east of the country; and endemic corruption sapped Ukrainian’s confidence in their government.

In Servant of the People, Zelensky played Vasiliy Goloborodko, a history teacher who shoots to fame after one of his students videos him railing against official corruption and becomes president. His character struck a chord with ordinary Ukrainians who longed for a plain-talking honest politician like Goloborodko.

After years of playing Pres. Goloborodko on television, Zelensky began to harbor political ambitions of his own. In 2018, he registered “Servant of the People” as an official political party.

4. President Zelensky
Campaigning for the presidency, Zelensky relied on his comedy background, posting humorous speeches and skits on social media. His unusual campaigning style paid off: In Ukraine’s 2019 presidential election, Volodymyr Zelensky won an astonishing 73% of the vote.

His path to governing wasn’t always smooth. He faced some accusations of being close to corrupt figures and was accused of bringing in members of his TV production company as key political advisors. Within days, Russia declared a major provocation, extending Russian citizenship to people living in eastern Ukrainian regions controlled by separatist insurgents whom Russia was backing in Donetsk and Luhansk.

At the Western Wall

Zelensky responded to this major assault on Ukrainian territorial integrity with humor, posting on Facebook that he would extend Ukrainian citizenship to people in Russia and others “who suffer from authoritarian or corrupt regimes.”

5. Recognizing Jewish History
When Zelensky ran for office, the Chief Rabbi of Dnipro said to the New York Times: “He should not run because we will have pogroms here again in two years if things go wrong.” Those fears proved misplaced. Instead, Zelensky was open about his Jewishness in office. He oversaw an ongoing project to rename streets and monuments throughout Ukraine, erasing the names of Soviet figures and replacing them with Ukrainian heroes, including Ukrainian Jews in some cases.

He began construction on a memorial at Babi Yar, the ravine outside Kyiv where Nazis murdered 100,000 Jews and other people. The Ukrainian city of Uman is the burial place of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and a major site for Jewish pilgrims to come and pray. Under Zelensky’s administration, plans are in the works to create what Zelensky called “a historical museum…a big part and…reconstruct(ion) of the synagogue” that Rabbi Nachman prayed in. The monument is to be called “Little Jerusalem”.

6. Resolution in Wartime
In the first hours of the Russian attack on Ukraine, President Zelensky vowed to remain in Kiyv, Ukraine’s capital. On a hastily recorded video made on a cellphone, he declared, “We are all here. Our soldiers are here. The citizens of our country are here…We are all here protecting our independence, our country, and it will continue to be this way. Glory to our defenders. Glory to our heroes. Glory to Ukraine.”


In the days since that first video, Zelensky has continued to urge Ukrainians to resist the Russian onslaught, and has rallied his people to resist. His anguished visage and stirring rhetoric has in many ways become the symbol of the war in Ukraine. He’s described himself as “Target Number One” and his wife and two children as “Target Number Two”. Despite the danger he’s in, Zelensky has vowed to stay and fight.



One political observer, Yulia McGuffie, editor in chief of Ukraine’s Novoye Vremya news site, opposed Pres. Zelensky’s candidacy in 2019, regarding him as a neophyte with no political experience. Today, Zelensky commands a 96% approval rating in Ukraine and Ms. McGuffie, like many Ukrainians, is enthusiastically backing their president. “Full support and respect came, I think, after Russia started its war,” she told the BBC. “All Ukrainians have closed ranks around Zelensky. He is playing a uniting and…inspiring role, partly by his own example. He is leading a government that is repelling Putin’s army, and for that many people sincerely admire and respect him.

About the Author

Dr. Yvette Alt Miller

More from this Author >

Dr. Alt Miller lives with her family in Chicago, and has lectured internationally on Jewish topics. Her book Angels at the table: a Practical Guide to Celebrating Shabbat takes readers through the rituals of Shabbat and more, explaining the full beautiful spectrum of Jewish traditions with warmth and humor. It has been praised as "life-changing", a modern classic, and used in classes and discussion groups around the world.

2022 Aish.com - Your life. Your Judaism.

https://aish.com/ukraines-president-volodymyr-zelensky-six-facts/?src=ac-txt
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky: 
Six Facts.March 1, 2022 | by Dr. Yvette Alt 

Ukraine’s youthful and unconventional Jewish president is inspiring his nation.

As the war in Ukraine continues, many people around the world are rallying around President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s unconventional, Jewish, 44-year-old leader. Here are six facts about President Zelensky and the crisis in Ukraine today.

1. Grandson of Holocaust Survivors
Volodymyr Zelensky was born January 25, 1978 in Kryvyi Rih, a city in eastern Ukraine. His family is Jewish and, like many Ukrainian Jews, was scarred by the Holocaust. (Zelensky has often drawn attention to the fact that approximately a quarter of all Jews murdered in the Holocaust came from Ukraine, a fact that’s not widely understood.)

During World War II, the town of Kryvyi Rih was occupied by Nazi Germany. It was home to a sizeable Jewish community, and in the years before the Nazi takeover of the town, many Jews fled eastward. Zelensky’s grandmother was one of the Jews who left. “My grandmother was living in Kryvyi Rih, in a part of south Ukraine which was occupied by the fascists,” Zelensky explained. “They killed all the Jews who remained. She had left in an evacuation of Jews to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Many people fled to there. She studied there. She’s a teacher. After World II, she came back. That’s where I was born.”

Zelensky with his parents

In 2020, when Zelensky travelled to Israel to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, he told Israel’s then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stories about Ukraine during the Holocaust. Before he concluded, he said he had one more tale to tell, “about a family of four brothers”:

Three of them, their parents and their families became victims of the Holocaust. All of them were shot by German occupiers who invaded Ukraine. The fourth brother survived… Two years after the war, he had a son, and in 31 years, he had a grandson. In 40 more years, that grandson became president, and he is standing before you today, Mr. Prime Minister.

2. An “Ordinary Soviet Jewish Family”
Zelensky describes his family as “an ordinary Soviet Jewish family.” He noted that since most instances of religious expression were banned in the Soviet Union, his family was not particularly observant., but they were aware of their Jewish heritage.

His family moved to Mongolia for a time while he was young, but returned in time for Zelensky to attend school in Kryvyi Rih. He grew up with Russian as his first language, and also speaks fluent Ukrainian and English.

In the early 1990s, after the demise of the Soviet Union, many Soviet Jews rushed to emigrate, moving to Israel or the United States. Approximately 1.5 million Jews fled in those heady years. Zelensky’s great aunt and her family moved to Israel in the 1990s, but he and his immediate family remained, joining several hundred thousand Jews who chose to stay in Ukraine and Russia.



Zelensky attended the Kryvyi Rih Economic Institute, a branch of Kyiv National Economic University. He graduated in 2000 with a law degree. He met his wife, Olena Zelensky, a screenwriter and spokesperson for Ukrainian women’s rights, in college. (Olena Zelensky is not Jewish; Pres. Zelensky has not commented on unsubstantiated rumors that he converted to Christianity.) Their daughter Oleksandra was born in 2004 and their son Kyrylo was born in 2013.

3. Career as an Comic Actor
Zelensky never practiced law. He started acting in college and eventually founded his own production company called Kvartal 95 - “Neighborhood 95” - after the area in Kryvyi Rih where he grew up. He turned to comedy and became a hit throughout the former Soviet Union, performing stand up and acting in some comic films. In 2006, he won Ukraine’s “Strictly Come Dancing” television competition. He also performed in Israel. He told an Israeli newspaper he’d done shows in “Tel Aviv, in Beersheba, in Haifa, in Jerusalem. In so many cities. So I know Israel. I know people there.”



In 2015 Zelensky began starring in a Ukrainian television show Servant of the People. The year before, Ukraine’s unpopular President Viktor Yanukovych was forced out of office and Pres. Petro Poroshenko was elected instead. It was a tumultuous time in Ukrainian politics: Russia invaded and later annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014; Russian-backed insurgents battled Ukrainian forces in the republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in the east of the country; and endemic corruption sapped Ukrainian’s confidence in their government.

In Servant of the People, Zelensky played Vasiliy Goloborodko, a history teacher who shoots to fame after one of his students videos him railing against official corruption and becomes president. His character struck a chord with ordinary Ukrainians who longed for a plain-talking honest politician like Goloborodko.

After years of playing Pres. Goloborodko on television, Zelensky began to harbor political ambitions of his own. In 2018, he registered “Servant of the People” as an official political party.

4. President Zelensky
Campaigning for the presidency, Zelensky relied on his comedy background, posting humorous speeches and skits on social media. His unusual campaigning style paid off: In Ukraine’s 2019 presidential election, Volodymyr Zelensky won an astonishing 73% of the vote.

His path to governing wasn’t always smooth. He faced some accusations of being close to corrupt figures and was accused of bringing in members of his TV production company as key political advisors. Within days, Russia declared a major provocation, extending Russian citizenship to people living in eastern Ukrainian regions controlled by separatist insurgents whom Russia was backing in Donetsk and Luhansk.

At the Western Wall

Zelensky responded to this major assault on Ukrainian territorial integrity with humor, posting on Facebook that he would extend Ukrainian citizenship to people in Russia and others “who suffer from authoritarian or corrupt regimes.”

5. Recognizing Jewish History
When Zelensky ran for office, the Chief Rabbi of Dnipro said to the New York Times: “He should not run because we will have pogroms here again in two years if things go wrong.” Those fears proved misplaced. Instead, Zelensky was open about his Jewishness in office. He oversaw an ongoing project to rename streets and monuments throughout Ukraine, erasing the names of Soviet figures and replacing them with Ukrainian heroes, including Ukrainian Jews in some cases.

He began construction on a memorial at Babi Yar, the ravine outside Kyiv where Nazis murdered 100,000 Jews and other people. The Ukrainian city of Uman is the burial place of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and a major site for Jewish pilgrims to come and pray. Under Zelensky’s administration, plans are in the works to create what Zelensky called “a historical museum…a big part and…reconstruct(ion) of the synagogue” that Rabbi Nachman prayed in. The monument is to be called “Little Jerusalem”.

6. Resolution in Wartime
In the first hours of the Russian attack on Ukraine, President Zelensky vowed to remain in Kiyv, Ukraine’s capital. On a hastily recorded video made on a cellphone, he declared, “We are all here. Our soldiers are here. The citizens of our country are here…We are all here protecting our independence, our country, and it will continue to be this way. Glory to our defenders. Glory to our heroes. Glory to Ukraine.”


In the days since that first video, Zelensky has continued to urge Ukrainians to resist the Russian onslaught, and has rallied his people to resist. His anguished visage and stirring rhetoric has in many ways become the symbol of the war in Ukraine. He’s described himself as “Target Number One” and his wife and two children as “Target Number Two”. Despite the danger he’s in, Zelensky has vowed to stay and fight.



One political observer, Yulia McGuffie, editor in chief of Ukraine’s Novoye Vremya news site, opposed Pres. Zelensky’s candidacy in 2019, regarding him as a neophyte with no political experience. Today, Zelensky commands a 96% approval rating in Ukraine and Ms. McGuffie, like many Ukrainians, is enthusiastically backing their president. “Full support and respect came, I think, after Russia started its war,” she told the BBC. “All Ukrainians have closed ranks around Zelensky. He is playing a uniting and…inspiring role, partly by his own example. He is leading a government that is repelling Putin’s army, and for that many people sincerely admire and respect him.

About the Author

Dr. Yvette Alt Miller

More from this Author >

Dr. Alt Miller lives with her family in Chicago, and has lectured internationally on Jewish topics. Her book Angels at the table: a Practical Guide to Celebrating Shabbat takes readers through the rituals of Shabbat and more, explaining the full beautiful spectrum of Jewish traditions with warmth and humor. It has been praised as "life-changing", a modern classic, and used in classes and discussion groups around the world.

2022 Aish.com - Your life. Your Judaism.
Our Privacy Guarantee: Your information is private. Your transactions are secure.