TIM COSTELLO reflects on our response to the unfolding crisis in Ukraine…
Writing anything about the war underway in Ukraine risks being dated even before it is published. The mayhem brought to bear on that nation is staggering and shocking. The shock waves are unlike anything I can remember in my life time.
I have found myself in a few conversations in the last few days when I realised that the constant stream of images of bombed apartment blocks, families fleeing the chaos, sleep-deprived mothers asking for food for their babies, and the insidious image of Russian trucks and tanks snaking to entrap a whole city – with a population the size of Sydney or Melbourne’s – is causing a colossal amount of anxiety, fear and anger.
A family fleeing Russian invasion of Ukraine arrives at a train station in Lviv, Ukraine, on 1st March. PICTURE: Reuters/Thomas Peter.
Some people cope with those emotions better than others do. Some of my friends are furious with Joe Biden for not bombing and obliterating that 40 kilometre convoy outside Kyiv. When I pointed out this could start World War III, one friend hung up on me. I know it is rage at our impotence, admiration of the courage of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and anxiety at feeling helpless.
What do we do with this knowledge we have? How do we cope with knowing World War III is a distinct possibility if the wrong decision is taken? How do we comfort and reassure our children and our European, especially Ukrainian-born, friends and neighbours?
“What do we do with this knowledge we have? How do we cope with knowing World War III is a distinct possibility if the wrong decision is taken? How do we comfort and reassure our children and our European, especially Ukrainian-born, friends and neighbours?”
One option is to cut off our exposure to this news. To stop watching it ‘live’. I know some will do that, and I understand that choice. And maybe to throw yourself into more local concerns. In part, this has happened to me. As the floods smashed Lismore in New South Wales, I found myself thrust into action. As the patron of the Lismore Soup Kitchen at The Winsome – which has been under water with its 20 resident males now homeless again and its meals program serving 150 a day suspended – it has been almost a personal relief to be raising money and support for this cause as a distraction from the Ukrainian horror.
Another option is to read everything and absorb the commentary in order to make ‘sense’ of the senselessness. I admit I have also taken that route, as I am a news junkie. But I am then perplexed to know what to do with all that I have absorbed.
My thoughts are also turning to the flood of one million refugees fleeing to Poland, Hungary, Moldova and Romania. President Viktor Orban of Hungary, who was fiercely anti-refugee and pro-Russia, has turned full circle to welcome desperate Ukrainians. This leader was defending ‘Christian Hungary, Christian Europe’ from migrant waves of Muslims from Syria even though they were fleeing a war from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military bombing and Russia’s arming Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He had refused then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s generous welcome and built a wall. Now in Hungary, there is no wall but a welcome for floods of refugees.
These nations are barely coping with the refugees they have received in other waves of arrivals – from other places of terror and fear. We here in Australia quibble about how many refugees we can take as we sit in our home comforts or eat at our COVID-free outdoor cafes. Lofty promises from government regarding intake numbers fall easily from lips, but, with an election looming, those of us who have been advocating for additional Afghani refugees to be given visas here since last August have found little response.
So, despite political cliches, we know Australia’s March federal budget will be about protecting a war chest for winning the May election – not a outlay on refugees. Pity help the Ukrainians needing safety, needing food, needing a place to call home whilst their homeland is ransacked. We welcome the public noises our PM is making on Ukrainian refugees but he made the same noises after the fall of Kabul and did not offer one additional place for Afghan refugees.
The beginning of Lent this week saw some online prayer apps focus on lament for Ukraine. I appreciated being involved in that. I also know Ash Wednesday services in some colleges and churches burnt candles in prayer and placed ash crosses on foreheads in honour of our fellow Christians in that land of Kyiv where in 988 AD Vladimir the Great had the whole city mass baptised. It is why Putin regards Kyiv as the mother city of all of Russia’s cities.
I have been incredibly heartened that more than 176 Russian Orthodox clerics have called for an immediate stop to the ongoing war in an open letter issued on 1st March. They have decried Putin’s robbing Ukraine from making their own choice “at the point of a gun”. This is such a refreshing challenge to their own Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill who had previously called Putin “a miracle of God”.
We can, of course, donate to the agencies trying to respond to this humanitarian crisis like Red Cross, World Vision and UNICEF. And we can – and must – pray.
I notice that the theme for this year’s World Day of Prayer being observed today (4th March) is “I know the plans I have for you”. It is God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:11 to his people in exile in Babylon: “[P]lans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. This is a Biblical promise that we can hold onto in our prayers. We need to keep hope alive.
Tim Costello is a Sight columnist and Sight Advisory Board member.
