Ukraine Outcome

As expected, peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have failed. Volodymyr Zelensky is a puppet leader controlled by hardline ultra-nationalists, so he cannot agree to any agreement that looks like surrender, even though his forces are being beaten. NATO leaders are encouraging him to keep going, but this is a mistake, as the longer he keeps fighting, the worse will be the outcome for the Ukranian people.

The Ukrainian people have backed the wrong horse. Ukraine will join the long list of nations that have been abandoned after putting its trust in promises of US support. The outcome will be ugly.

• The Ukrainian army is already defeated, and cannot win, even with American support. Trump’s attempts to establish peace in Ukraine will eventually fail.

• If Volodymyr Zelenskyy signs up to a peace agreement, he will be destroyed by the ultra-nationalists and oligarchs who control him.

• Ukrainian forces fighting against Russia will flee west and attempt to destroy him.

• American attempts to fly in Valery Zaluzny or some other leader more amenable to the West will fail, as these efforts always fail. A worse person usually rises in the place of the person who was supposed to be a safe alternative.

The longer the war goes on the worse the situation will become for Ukraine. Once the Ukrainian defence collapses and the war ends, the situation could deteriorate rapidly.

• The Ukranian population will continue to collapse. 20 million Ukrainians have migrated and most will not return. The birth rate has collapsed. In 2024, 495,000 Ukrainians died while 176,000 were born.

• Fleeing soldiers will return home without their pay or any financial support. Many will have to go overseas to serve as mercenaries to earn a living.

• Without US funding, the Ukrainian bureaucracy will not be able to pay staff and many good jobs will disappear.

• Most Ukrainian industry has been destroyed, so employment will become scarce.

• Government services will cease as funding collapses.

• The massive weight of debt will cause the economy to collapse and civil society to break down.

• Numerous disappointed Ukrainians will migrate to Western Europe looking for work opportunities.

• Ukrainians who fought in the war will feel betrayed by their leaders and the people who have lived in comfort in Western Ukraine.

• Civil disruption will become widespread.

• A massive rebuild will be needed, but Europe and then the US will be unwilling to fund it.

• Eastern Ukraine will be rebuilt with Russian and Chinese support.

• The political struggle for power in Ukraine will continue.

• The ultra-nationalists and oligarchs who have been ripping off Ukraine will seize control and civil strife will break out in Kiev.

• European leaders will be embarrassed when it becomes obvious that they have been supporting ultra-nationalists and oligarchs with nazi sympathies.

• Europe will become absorbed in its own economic problems as it is weakened by disunity. It will lose interest in supporting Ukraine.

• The security guarantees of NATO and its promises of support have been exposed as useless.

• Without NATO holding it together, Europe will fragment into disunity.

• Tariff wars will undermine the EU, leading to more fragmentation.

• Europe has lost its soul, and will go into sharp decline, unless a real Hitler emerges in France or Germany.

For background comments on this issue, see Russia and Ukraine.

Zelensky and Ukraine

I published this piece in December 2022. It is probably becoming more relevant now.

Zelensky has not acted with truthfulness and integrity
His lies will be exposed
A bad spirit will come between Zelensky and the western news media.
When they realise that he has duped them
They will be filled with scorn,
They will turn on him and attack him with a vengeance.

They will accuse him of doing the things
that he has accused his enemies of doing.
His false accusations will turn back on his head,
and he will lose his place.

A bad spirit will come between Zelensky and his people.
When they realise that he has lied to them,
making false promises that he cannot deliver
and used their men as cannon fodder for no benefit,
destroying their country
and wrecking their economy,
while stealing their wealth.
They will hate him, and he will lose his place.

The battle has been heavy but he did not acknowledge it
so something bad will close in on them.
Some of the soldiers whom he betrayed
will be so angry
that they return to Kiev to destroy him.

Ukraine will be given into the hands of the people who have plundered them.
The oligarchs and ultra-nationalist who rule the country will be exposed
when they openly seize control.
Their true character will be revealed.
God will surrender them in the hands of the nation they hate
His hand will be against them
so they cannot stand against it.
Things will go badly for them
as they come under intense pressure.

Western military and political leaders
will be embarrassed when they realise
who they have been supporting
and will turn against them with a vengeance.
They will break faith with each other,
and blame each other for their failures.

Zelensky Ukraine and Biden

Zelensky has not acted with truthfulness and integrity
His lies will be exposed
A bad spirit will come between Zelensky and the western news media.
When they realise that he has duped them
They will be filled with scorn,
They will turn on him and attack him with a vengeance.

They will accuse him of doing the things
that he has accused his enemies of doing.
His false accusations will turn back on his head,
and he will lose his place.

A bad spirit will come between Z and his people.
When they realise that he has lied to them,
making false promises that he cannot deliver
and used their men as cannon fodder for no benefit,
destroying their country
and wrecking their economy,
while stealing their wealth.
They will hate him, and he will lose his place.

The battle has been heavy
but he did not acknowledge it
so something bad will close in on them.
Some of the soldiers whom he betrayed
will be so angry
that they return to Kiev
and destroy him.

Ukraine will be given into the hands
of the people who have plundered them.
The oligarchs and neo-nazis who rule the country
will be exposed
when they openly seize control.
Their true character will be revealed.

God will surrender them in the hands of the nation they hate
His hand will be against them
so they cannot stand against it.
Things will go badly for them
as they come under intense pressure.

Western military and political leaders
will be embarrassed when they realise
who they have been supporting
and will turn against them with a vengeance.
They will break faith with each other,
and blame each other for their failures.

Joe Biden has not acted with truthfulness and integrity
so God will release a season of fire in his nation:
His funding and equipping of bloodshed
to strengthen the hand of evil
will come back on his head
Violence will come home on him
and release a spirit of violence amongst his people.
Fire will come out and devour him.
A flood of violence will sweep across the land.

God will send a bad spirit between Biden and his people,
His bad actions will be turned back on his head.
He is playing God, and trying to weaken Russia,
but his nation will be divided and weakened under his rule.

God will be against Biden
He will not be able to stand against the flood
moving across the southern border.

Biden He will believe he is winning,
but it is just chasing the shadows of mountains.
God will be against him.
A woman will fracture his authority
and his power will be destroyed.

(December 2022)

Negotiations not War

Jesus did not say much about war, because he was not interested in it as a method for advancing his cause. He refused to start a war to protect his life or to advance his kingdom. Human kingdoms are worth less than the Kingdom of God, so it is not worth fighting a war for, then no other human government is worth it.

However, the one time that Jesus did talk about war, he gave some really good advice that Christians should heed.

Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace (Luke 14:31-32).

The principle in Jesus parable is very restrictive. War is only justified if the benefits are greater than the total cost. Most wars fail to deliver the hoped-for benefits, so very few problems can justify the cost of war.

If all governments applied Jesus’ principle, then war would be rare. Enemies with weaker military forces would be unlikely to attack stronger nations. And if a stronger nation is threatening a weaker nation, its enemy would generally have overwhelmingly superior forces, so any attempt at defence would be pointless and produce unnecessary suffering.

There are generally very few winners in war. The cost for the families of those who die is enormous. For the soldiers who survive the cost is also be high because many will have physical and mental injuries that blight their lives. War never produces benefits that justify the cost, so I am surprised that so many Christians are enthusiastic about war.

Jesus' principle applies to the current war in Ukraine. Despite what the western news media are saying, the Ukrainians lost the war almost as soon as it started. Their air forces and navy were destroyed in the first few days. Most of the Ukrainian army is in the east of the country because the US had encouraged their political leaders to break the Minsk peace agreements and take back control of the rebel Donbas provinces by military force. These forces are now surrounded and cut off (possibly with some of their American trainers). They can keep firing artillery in the Donbas region for a while but when their ammunition runs out, they will have no choice but to surrender.

The only sensible thing that the Ukrainian president can do is follow Jesus’ advice and sue for peace. The sooner he does, the better conditions he will be able to negotiate. The longer he leaves it, the weaker his bargaining position will be. Saying that you will fight to the last man for your democracy is stupid. No democracy is worth thousands of lives. Paul lived the Christian life effectively under emperor Nero, so no political system is essential for the advance of the gospel.

The US and UK leaders are doing huge harm by preventing the Ukrainian from negotiating seriously. They learned to hate “the Russians” when they were growing up, and they still want to put them down (they have lost sight of the fact that our real enemy is the spiritual powers of evil and that Jesus loves Russians as much as he loves Anglo-saxons). Unfortunately, these western leaders don’t really care about the Ukrainian people and are quite happy to use them as pawns in their bigger power game.

And the Western news media are also doing serious harm with their messaging.

• Training old women how to fire a rifle looks good on television but it will not change anything on the ground, except cause unnecessary suffering.

• Training young women how to throw Molotov cocktails at tanks is a romantic idea, but it will just produce more unnecessary suffering.

• Handing out guns to untrained civilians and telling them to defend their cities is foolish and will only lead to unnecessary loss of life.

• Sending thousands of right-wing crazies from all over Europe to fight in Ukraine is as stupid as training and equipping the Sunni Sons of Iraq, who morphed into ISIS. Blowback into the countries that they came from is inevitable..

• Allowing women and children to leave as refugees while making their husbands and father remain to fight will end in tragedy for many families.

• Telling the Ukrainian people that they are winning a war that they have already lost is doing them a disservice. The American and British military experts who say that Ukraine is winning are the same ones that said that the war in Afghanistan was being on the verge of being won, so they have no credibility.

• David's defeat of Goliath was a wonderful event, but it only applies when the Holy Spirit's annointing is on God's man. It does not apply to nations, no matter how plucky they are.

• Sending massive numbers of rocket launchers and anti-tank weapons to Ukraine is foolish, because they won't all be used there. They will leak into the rest of Europe and getting into the wrong hands there.

• Encouraging an insurgency in Ukrainian cities will only add to the pain and suffering, and for very little benefit.

The only way to end the suffering in Ukraine is to negotiate a peace settlement and stick to it.

The sad thing is that this is another unnecessary war. There were plenty of opportunities to negotiate a peace settlement in the months before it began. The Russian president described the issues that needed to be resolved and repeatedly asked for serious negotiations, but the US, UK and NATO leaders were too arrogant to engage seriously. Instead, they goaded the Russian president to invade because they thought he would be too scared, but that gambit failed. These leaders persuaded the Ukrainian leaders not to engage either. This was reckless because encouraging the Ukrainians to resist Russia and then refusing them to support them when it went wrong was an ugly betrayal.

The NZ foreign minister says that the window for a diplomatic solution is closing. That is not true. Diplomacy is always the only solution to war. Even when the guns go silent, a diplomatic solution to establish peace is needed. Jesus’ advice to negotiate for peace when you are likely to lose is as urgent as ever. President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov claim that they want a diplomatic solution. The best solution would be to seriously test that commitment.

War

I hate war. In my studies of history, I have never discovered one where the cause justified the cost in terms of suffering that war produces. The decision that a war was worth the price is made by the living who did not lose their lives. The people who died don’t get a voice. I think it is arrogant to say that my freedom is worth another person's life, and the lives of all their descendents.

Jesus’ death on the cross set me completely free. The death of no other person is needed to make me freer. If we believe that Jesus made us truly free, why do we want other people to die for our freedom.

The current war is no different. It is an unnecessary war that could have been avoided if leaders on all sides had not been intransigent.

What I find disconcerting is the number of Christian celebrities speaking out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, whom I have not heard speaking against war before. I am pleased to see their oppostion to this war, but I can’t help feeling that their angst is a bit selective.

• These people were mostly silent when the US, France and the UK invaded Libya and wrecked the most prosperous nation in Africa.

• They have been silent about the Saudi invasion of Yemen, one of the poorest nations in the world, with the logistical support of the United States. They call Putin a dictator, but they don’t throw the same barbs at the ruler of Saudi Arabia, because he is a US ally.

• They have been silent about the illegal US invasion of Syria.

• They cheered on the US invasion of Iraq, which caused nearly a million deaths, and spawned ISIS.

• They remained silent during the twenty-year war of destruction and revenge for 9/11 against the people of Afghanistan who had nothing to do with it.

• They are silent about the United States stealing $9 billion dollars from the Afghan central bank, money that belongs to the Afghan people, which is needed to keep them from starvation.

• They did not care about the US bombing of Belgrade to split up Yugoslavia with no suggestion that the old borders were sacrosanct.

• Evangelical Christians cheered on the invasion of Vietnam, and the bombing of Laos and Cambodia for no useful purpose.

• Christians have remained silent about Israel’s continuous, brutal mistreatment of the Palestinian people with military equipment supplied by the United States.

• They have ignored Israel’s illegal bombing of Syria and Lebanon.

• They ignore the pain, suffering and death caused by economic sanctions, and pretend that economic war is good and military war is bad, while claiming to support freedom.

It seems that celebrity Christians don’t care about US and UK aggression nearly as much as they care about Russian aggression. Is it because the victims are white Europeans. I can’t help wondering if the virulence of their verbal attacks on Russian are driven more by racism and xenophobia than by Christian concern and compassion?

There are a few exceptions. Roger E Olson's article about Russia’s and America’s Invasions is pertinent, but it has been severly criticised.

War Hysteria

The current war hysteria is a western beat up. Boris and Biden are both sinking in the popularity polls and talking up threats of war is an old political trick for trying to regain lost support (It worked well for Georg W). When eventually nothing happens, because nothing will happen, they will claim that it was their bold response that prevented it from happening. But astute people will understand that their belligerence only demonstrates their weakness.

Russia already controls a bigger geographic area than most nations on earth, so Vladimir Putin has no interest in invading Ukraine. It is an economic basket case, riddled with neo-Nazis. Industries that supplied parts for Russian business have collapsed because the EU is not interested in buying from Ukraine. Those industries that have survived are controlled by oligarchs. Almost everything of value has already been sold by the bankrupt government.

The US organised a pro-Western coup in Ukraine in 2014, but has been unwilling to trade seriously with Ukraine and Europe has not provided the material aid that it needs to develop. All they will supply is weapons, which just makes the situation more unstable. If Russia was going to conquer Ukraine, it would have done it years ago, when Western powers were unprepared. Putin took back Crimea because Russia needs to have a warm-water port, and it was built by Russia in the first place.

Vladimir Putin does not need to invade another economic and ethnic basket case that needs propping up. He is quite happy to leave that problem to the Europeans who were so keen to gain influence in Ukraine. Only the Americans and the British still believe that war can be used to change nations for good. The Russians learnt the hard way that war does not work.

The only other thing that Putin wants is for the Americans to keep their missiles, which can carry nuclear weapons, out of Eastern Europe. This is sensible, as during a military confrontation, a missile fired from Poland or Ukraine can reach Moscow in about five minutes. That is not much time to determine if it carries nuclear warheads, and to decide if massive nuclear retaliation against Europe and the United States is required. The people of the West who will be the targets should want them to have more time to ponder their response too.

Ukraine

In a previous post, I suggested that Crimea could be the second rib in the mouth of the bear. After more reflection and study of the verse, I think I was wrong to see the ribs as sequential. Daniel saw four terrible beasts coming out of the sea. The first was an eagle attempting to get free from a lion. The second beast was a bear.

And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, “Get up and eat your fill of flesh!” (Dan 7:5).

In this series of visions, nations are represented by animals, so a rib is not a nation, but a region of a nation. The bear had three ribs in its mouth. This describes an empire taking control of three regions of another nation (or several nations).

A bear is a commonly used a symbol for Russian. For a long time, I thought that Russia was too weak to be a fulfilment of this vision, but that now seems to be changing. Russia is now growing in strength towards the west (one side). With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia lost territory on its western flank. Some of the ribs that protect its central organs were ripped out of its side.

The boundaries between Russia and the neighbouring republics were formed quite arbitrarily by the leaders of the Soviet Union, so they do not reflect historical population and cultural patterns. For example, Eastern Ukraine includes areas, which were traditionally part of Russia. President Putin is leading a resurgent Russian culture. He will take every opportunity to restore these lands to Russia. Crimea is the current example.

As the Red Horse goes to work in the Ukraine, racial and religious differences will tear the nation apart. This disunity will present an opportunity for Russia to seize back the lands that Russians believe to be part of their nation. The provinces with the significant Russian population are Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk. I suspect that at some time in the future, Russia will get an opportunity to take these regions back. When we see these three ribs being chomped up at the same time, the vision will be fulfilled. This is still in the future.

In Genesis 2, Eve was formed from a rib taken from Adam’s side. The Russian Orthodox Church was established in the area around Kiev, so this area is like a rib of Russia. The bear will eventually want to get this rib back into its side.

Daniel heard the bear being told to “Get up and eat. The nations of the West should be careful, because God has given the bear permission to “get up and eat its fill of flesh”.

God will allow this to happen as judgement on the Western nations that have forgotten him and focused on feeding the flesh. He has allowed Russian control over a significant share of the world’s oil supplies to shake the western economy. This will lead to the third seal of Revelation. The solution is not belligerence towards Russia, but repentance towards God.

The regions of Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk are not strategically important in themselves. The main issue is the impact on Western Nations. This Bear and the Leopard release the Terrible Beast of Daniel’s vision.

Ukraine

Some things about recent events in the Ukraine that are not widely understood.

• Russia has suffered three terrible invasions from the West. The French armies burned Moscow in the 19th century. Germans armies invaded twice in the twentieth century. In 1941, the German armies reached Moscow and the Russians took a million casualties defending their capital. The United States got paranoid when a building in New York was destroyed in 9/11. Have foreign armies invade the heartland your nation three times and besiege it, would really affect your psyche.

• In Hollywood, the United States won the Second World War. On the ground, the USSR was the major winner. More than 20 million Russians died driving Hitler’s Nazi forces out of Eastern Europe (US deaths were less than half a million). Naturally, they are not happy when Western leaders encourage the far right leaders back into the Ukraine again.

• Lenin and Stalin believe that the Communist Revolution would triumph throughout the world. So in a sense they wanted to create a world empire. Therefore, when they won significant territory in Eastern Europe, they stayed. Putin is far more realistic. He understands how weak Russia has become and that a Russian empire, even in Eastern Europe is not sustainable. His focus is on defending and building up the Russia homeland.

• Millions of Ukrainian civilians were killed during the battle between the Nazi and Soviet forces between 1933 and 1945. Many were killed by other Ukrainians. This has had a terrible spiritual effect, and many spirits of hatred and violence have made there home there. Many memories of violence and injustice are still strong. The associated guilt and hatred makes Ukraine a happy hunting ground for the Red Horse.
  

• Russia needs a warm water port to avoid having supplies cut off during the winter. This why Catherine the Great seized Crimea in 1783. The harbour at Sevastopol in the Black Sea gives Russian trade access to the Mediterranean Sea. Just as the US would never allow Canada to seize control of the St Lawrence Seaway, Russia will never give up control of Crimea. That is why Putin acted so quickly to secure it.

• Two of the richest Ukrainian oligarchs, Rinat Akhmentov and Dmitry Firtash, controlled 90 seats in the Ukrainian Rada (parliament) between them. They were cronies of President Yankukovych and he had looked after them. They saw the writing on the wall and switched their support to the opposition. This gave the Rada the majority it needed to depose the President. This was not a people’s revolution the media dream about, but oligarchs changing sides to protect their power and wealth.

• Putin is unlikely to invade Ukraine. He knows that is an economic basket case and would not be silly enough to take responsibility for it. The Ukraine needs access to Russian markets for its production. The Ukrainian economy needs discounted natural gas from Russian to survive. The new Ukranian leaders will have to beg for help from Putin, so he does not need to invade it.

• Many Ukrainians would like to part of the European Union. This is not because they are hankering for democracy. They have had democracy for twenty years, and all it has given them is poverty and corruption. The GDP of Ukraine is now 20 percent less than it was when the Soviet Union collapsed. They look at the relative prosperity of Poland next door and want some of it. They do not understand that their economy could not compete with German industry.

• The United States has offered a $1 billion dollar loan. That is not much help for a nation with debts of $30 billion that have to be repaid. The IMF is going to help too, but all it has to offer is austerity policies. The western powers will not be able to save the Ukrainian economy.

• Far right groups are emerging all over Europe. One of the groups leading the protests in Ukraine is Svobada, which has 36 deputies in the Rada. It began life as the Social National Party of Ukraine and has strong links with other far right parties in Europe.

• There are reports that some of the protesters were shot by radical members of far right militants, but this is already forgotten by history. It will record that the protestors were slaughtered by the Ukrainian security services, because that is what the western media wants to believe.

• Russia has suffered far more casualties to Islamic terrorist groups than the United States. So they are puzzled when John McCain pledges support for extreme Islamic groups in Syria and embraces far right groups in Ukraine.

• The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) spends $100 million dollars a year supporting democracy all over the world, but when push comes to shove, the United States ignores democracy. President Yanukovitch is a dodgy character who has lined his own pockets (like many politicians), but he was elected in a fair election in 2012. A greater percentage of the population voted for him than voted for Obama or George W. His part won a majority in the parliamentary elections in 2012. Yet the American government now supports his overthrow. So much for democracy?

• The British tried to invade Crimea in 1853 and failed. Now the UK foreign minister William Hague struts around Europe proclaiming what should happen in Crimea in his whining pompous voice. No one cares what the British thinks. Someone should tell him that he lost his empire in 1940.

Ukraine cannot be restored to peace and prosperity by political or military power. Only the gospel of Jesus can break down the barriers and only a vision of the Kingdom of God can restore what has been lost.

Another Rib for the Bear

In 2008, George W Bush, who was skilled in starting wars that he could not finish, encouraged Georgian President to seize control of the independent enclave of South Ossetia. Vladimir Putin gave him a bloody nose and George W was powerless to help. At the time, I wrote these words in a series called What Happens Next.

Daniel foresaw these events in a dream. He saw four terrible beasts coming out of the sea. The first was an eagle attempting to get free from a lion. That has already been fulfilled. The second beast was a bear.

And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, 'Get up and eat your fill of flesh (Dan 7:5).

For a long time, I thought that Russia was too weak to be a fulfilment of this vision, but that now seems to be changing. Russia is now growing in strength towards the west (one side).

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia lost territory on its western flank. Some of the ribs that protect its central organs were ripped out of its side. These ribs are now being recovered. The three ribs being crushed by the bear’s teeth probably represent three nations, with Georgia being the first. The other possibility is that the three ribs are Abkhazia, Georgia and South Ossetia. These territories are like three ribs in a row.

The bear was told to “Get up and eat”, so we can expect to more to follow. I am not sure which territories they are. One possibility is the Eastern Ukraine, which has many Russian speaking citizens. The other possibility is Crimea, which is important for control of the Black Sea.

NATO is currently intent on stirring up the nations on Russian’s western flank. In response to the Georgian saga, the union of states has established missile bases in Poland. NATO pressure leaves Russia vulnerable to attack, so it is not surprising that the bear is fighting back. NATO should be careful, because God has given the bear permission to “get up and eat its fill of flesh”.

God is allowing this to happen as judgement on the Western nations that have forgotten him and focused on feeding the flesh. He has allowed Russian control over a significant share of the world’s oil supplies to shake the western economy. This will lead to the third seal of Revelation. The solution is not belligerence towards Russia, but repentance towards God.

The US Ambassador Victoria Nuland has poked the bear again. If Abkhazia and South Assetia was the first rib, Crimea is the next rib to be crushed by the bear’s teeth. I am not sure about the third rib.

Red Horse in Ukraine

The newsreader last night introduced her story about Ukraine as a “a triumph for people power”. The Neocons are describing the situation as the collapse of socialism. Both are missing the point. The latest events in the Ukraine represent another advance of the Red Horse of Revelation. This horse represents military struggles between ethnic groups that will destroy government and tear apart nations that were established during the age of nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Ukraine came together in its current form at the end of World War 2.

Eastern Ukraine is the cradle of the Russian Orthodox Church and the place where the Russian empire began. Most of the people speak Russian and have links to the Russian Orthodox Church. They suffered terribly during the German invasion, so they look to Russia for protection from the West.

Crimea in the south of Ukraine has been part of Russia for a long time. It was joined to the Ukraine by Khrushchev in 1954.

Western Ukraine was part of the Lithuanian and Polish empires for several centuries. The people speak Ukrainian and are mostly Roman Catholic. They are much more open to the West.

These religious, ethnic and language tensions are now tearing the nation apart. The intensity of the divisions is compounded by serious economic problems. The Ukrainian government is broke. Debts of more than thirteen billion dollars are outstanding and need to be rolled over. Most of these debts are owed to western banks. The European Union is talking sweetly, but all they have to offer Ukraine is austerity.

The Ukrainian economy is controlled by a few powerful oligarchs. The economy is dependent on Russian gas for fuel and needs Russian markets for the sale of its products. While people in Eastern Ukraine would like stronger links with the EU, its businesses could not compete with other European countries.

Ukraine has many groups who are not afraid to use force and violence to gain political and economic power. These conditions are perfect for the Red Horse.

Up until now the Red Horse has mostly worked in the Middle East and Africa, often in Moslem countries (Lebanon, Bosnian Syria, Iraq). Ukraine is the first Christian country to be stuck by the Red Horse. We will see more of this. Zechariah indicated the direction that would be taken by three of the horsemen of Revelation (north south and west). He gives no direction for the Red Horse. John says that the Red Horse is given a large sword to take peace from the world so that people would kill each other (Rev 6:4). This indicates that the Red Horse will show up all over the world, not just in the East.

Events in Europe are a warning of what could happen in the rest of Europe.