Playing with Fire: Trying to split Christians in Ukraine

Aftermath of fire set in St. Vladimir's church, Lviv, Ukraine

Most people, even those who consider themselves Christian or Orthodox Christians, will not know of the news considered to be "the worst crisis in centuries" for the Christian Orthodox churches.  This past week, after years of debate and pressure from outside forces, the Ukrainian Orthodox church announced a split from the Patriarch Russian Orthodox church which has been in existence for over 1,000 years. 

Unfortunately for Ukraine her fertile lands, strategic location, healthy and attractive people, temperate climate, have made her a battle ground for western European countries (Polish-Lithuanian empire, German Third Reich)  and for a time a vassal of the USSR.   Ukraine has been torn by the soviets (Holodomor-where over 10 million Ukrainians were starved to death) and their policies of "Russification" which included closing all churches, detaining, imprisoning, working to death millions of Ukrainians, making the official language Russian.   To add injury to injury, in 1986 the disaster in Chernobyl, with the horrific consequences for Ukrainian people-radiation poisoning, death and environmental destruction-revealed a terrible lesson to the entire world.   Yes, Ukraine has been ravaged and scarred, yet rises resilient again and again.   Her people are strong,  humble and quick to adapt.

Ukraine's bid for independence was finally realized in 1991.
The United States, the UK and the newly formed EU in the 1993, counted on Ukraine leaders wanting to join their ranks and moving away from Russia-no longer the Soviet Union, but it's own country again. In the 20 years following, the USA in particular, watched the internal politics, the oil and gas prices/pipeline negotiations/ pipeline locations, with alarm.  Slowly and steadily the USA implemented programs to assure Ukraine and Poland would be "buffer zones" essentially under their control, should it be necessary to threaten or attack Russia or should Russia decide to expand it's influence and territory.   

Now there is another attack which adversely affects Ukraine.  Major power players on the world stage are pushing for dividing, diminishing and decimating all Christian influence, property and followers-whether by outright killing and genocide perpetrated by those who are their minions-or by splitting and conquering from within and without (scandals, confiscation of wealth, lawsuits, bombing churches, displacing Christian communities).  These "players" have scored a major victory after battling behind the scenes in Ukraine for years.   They have utilized the current president of Ukraine to galvanize and incentivize the Ukrainian Orthodox Christian church to break from what he calls, "the shadow of the Russian church".   There have been a number of highly publicized events over the last year which have added fuel to his incendiary speeches and in some cases desecration, temporary closures and arson against Russian Orthodox churches.  www.asianews.it/news-en/The-two-Churches-in-Ukraine-and-the-bleeding-child-42871.html

Responses from other countries including the very small Orthodox population in Turkey has prompted fiery rhetoric in response:  On Thursday a Synod meeting in Istanbul backed Ukraine's request for "autocephalous" — or self-governing — status and reversed the excommunication of Patriarch Filaret, who hopes to lead the newly independent church based in Kiev."   themoscowtimes.com/news/russian-orthodox-church-threatens-tough-response-over-istanbul-backing-of-ukraine-split-63182

The Eastern Orthodox Christian churches of the Middle East (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran) and Eastern Europe (Armenia, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Russia, Serbia)   Europe (Greece, Cyprus, Moldova, Malta, Macedonia,Albania,Romania,Montenegro,Poland, Finland, Bosnia, Czech Republic) and Africa (Egypt,Ethiopia,Libya, Eritrea, Sudan); their large congregations in Canada, Australia, India and the USA, and smaller congregations in Israel, Japan, Uzbekistan and Turkey; have co-existed and supported each other for over 1,000 years while each having autonomy in their respective countries.   

They do not have a "pope" but different "Patriarchs" and "Primates" and "Archbishops" by region.   They are strongly united in theological beliefs, prayers and the rites, including communion.   They wield influence in their parishes and wider communities, and often in political and economic decisions in their respective countries.  They own property, are mostly tax exempt and control land, positions and to an extent-people. They have their own sacred languages.  United they are a force to be reckoned with and constitute a more devoted and faithful following than many other Christian denominations.  

Those with malevolent intentions see this unity as an obstacle.   They do not want any form of worship to a Divine entity, to God, over their own rule.   Communism, Atheism, Monarchies and Fascism proclaim this openly for these forms of governing.  They demand all allegiances must be to "the state", or "supreme" or "royal" leaders first.   Communism does not tolerate any religions.  Theocracies such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan only tolerate one religion and prohibit all others.   'Globalism' espouses only 'secular democracies'.   Globalists view Christianity, especially Eastern Orthodox denominations, as obstacles to their new world order.

Disparaging "family values"  (to break up the strongest units of society) "biblical law" and promoting materialism, hedonism and militarism by every means possible; is an integral part of the strategy of 'globalism' to unhitch any loyalties which might make an individual stronger in their uniqueness or connection to the Divine.   Media and 'education' are used to shove the insidious globalist ideas down and through the ears, eyes, throats and hearts of the target population.   The means to do this is ushered in through "programs provided" often with funds, by international and US based "aid" organizations as well as complicit non-government organizations (NGOs) which are thought to all be non-profit, but that is certainly not the case.  They are contractors, hand in glove, with the various governments they work for and with, all over the world.

Those organizations that many people believe are "humanitarian, unbiased and doing good deeds" are often only covers.   Beware wolves in the sheep's clothing of the avowed 'secular'  USAID, Peace Corps, World Health Organization, UNICEF and even "Doctors" without Borders.  All of these organizations have been involved in  activities which can, and often do interfere in the political, economic and social fabric of the society they are 'helping'.  They have enabled intelligence operations from rival nations, and even aided criminal activities in a number of countries-including (and especially) in Ukraine.    These actions have been documented by whistle blowers and investigative reporters including George Webb, John Kiriakou, the late Sergei Magnetsky, the late Pavel Sheremet, Rasna Warah and many others.  One recent example of USAID and the US Department of State interference and collaboration with George Soros, and other nefarious individuals; was reported today by the reputable US site, Judicial Watch:  www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-new-documents-show-state-department-and-usaid-working-with-soros-group-to-channel-money-to-mercenary-army-of-far-left-activists-in-albania/

"The animosity between the country’s Moscow and Kiev patriarchates has intensified since the start of its bloody but undeclared war with Russia in 2014. Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko appealed to Bartholomew in April 2018, for church independence – also known as autocephaly – and he says the formation of a national church is a crucial step in Ukraine’s bid to escape centuries of Russian domination".    www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/russian-orthodox-church-warns-of-violence-and-schism-over-ukraine-1.3631073     

President Poroshenko is using the time tested tool of dividing the power of the church for his own political ascendancy.   In addition, he hurls a pointed barb against Russian religious guidance and encourages disengaging from the Russian patriarchs.   “There won’t be any pressure — every Ukrainian will have their own way to God,” he (President Poroshenko) said. “And the government will respect the choice of those who decide to stay parishioners of the church structure that retains unity with the Russian Orthodox Church.”   Although,  on the other hand, Poroshenko said that the government will protect those who “voluntarily decide to quit the Moscow church” and “choose Ukraine.” He does not promise the same protection for Russian Orthodox, clergy, churches or congregants. www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/poroshenko-lets-not-allow-kremlin-to-start-religious-war.html
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President Poroshenko also proclaimed that supporting the Russian Orthodox churches meant "supporting Russia" as in the Russian government and President Putin.    He repeatedly reminded Ukrainians of the terrible treatment by Russia during the time of Stalin and the Soviet Union as well as the pressure by Russian church clergy on Ukrainian church clergy during those times.   This rhetoric is encouraged and applauded by his US advisers.

Poroshenko, who was placed in Ukrainian Presidency by a coup, continually presses for more aid, more support in terms of cash, weapons, advisers, training and favored nation economic status.  Meanwhile Ukraine has become a game board for "information operations", psychological manipulation/social engineering experiments, pharmaceutical testing, human trafficking and the further "balkanization"  (carving up, severing) of eastern Europe.
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More and more evidence is being released concerning the  "coup" the US created under the Obama/Clinton administration and endorsed by the late Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona.  There is a plethora of evidence on open sources including documentaries and investigative reporting via videos online.
You can start with these articles:  
​www.veteranstoday.com/2018/02/20/shocking-new-evidence-maidan-snipers-confess-they-were-under-orders-from-coup-leaders-to-shoot-police-and-protesters/

washingtonsblog.com/2014/12/head-stratfor-private-cia-says-overthrow-yanukovych-blatant-coup-history.html

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The late Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Chris Murphy on a platform with Svoboda Neo-Nazi leader Oleh Tyahnybok

The significance of neo-Nazism in Ukraine and the tacit official U.S support or tolerance for it should be clearly understood:
"This did not begin under President Trump but under President George W. Bush, when then Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s  “Orange Revolution” began rehabilitating Ukraine’s wartime ideologues who still followed the anti-semitic and Nazi teachings of Stefan Bandera.   "It grew under President Obama, who, along with Vice President Joseph Biden, were deeply complicit in the Maidan coup and what followed."   www.thenation.com/article/americas-collusion-with-neo-nazis/​
Joseph Biden's son, Hunter Biden-who was discharged from the US Navy reserve in 2014, due to his use of illegal drugs including cocaine-was placed on the board of the Ukrainian major gas company, Burisma Holdings.  Hunter Biden was back in the headlines in March 2017, when his estranged ex-wife claimed that the younger Biden “squandered his family’s money on hookers, strip clubs and drugs” in divorce papers, according to the New York Post reports.   "Then too, the American mainstream media scarcely noticed.  Still worse, when a founder of a neo-Nazi party and now repackaged speaker of the Ukrainian parliament visited Washington in 2017, he was widely feted by leading American politicians, including Senator John McCain. [Joseph Biden] and Representative Paul Ryan.  Imagine the message this sent back to Ukraine—and elsewhere".       www.dw.com/en/who-are-hunter-bidens-ukrainian-bosses/a-17642254
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Neocons and Hawks circled around Ukraine vying for lucrative training contracts and weapons sales for themselves and their supporters.   Senator John McCain was there from the inception of the "Orange" revolution and unabashedly supported Neo Nazi, fascist parties Svoboda, Privy Sektor and the Azov militias, taking photos and giving speeches, profiting handsomely and laughing at Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Jane Nuland's vituperative outburst caught on tape  (Fxxxx the EU!) while authorizing billions of dollars to "support democracy" in Ukraine.  McCain was part of the group which included George Soros, choreographing a successful coup to replace an actually democratically elected president, Victor Yanukovych, with Petro Poroshenko, the US and NATO puppet.  They had no conscience or qualms about promoting a civil war between Ukrainians, slavs against slavs, brother against brother.  There is even a "white paper" outlining the ideal strategies for gaining Ukrainian land, but without Ukrainians if they are in any way favorable toward Russia and anything Russian.

John McCain's name is set to be the new name of a street in Kiev, Ukraine's capital and scene of the Maidan massacre.  A few comments posted about the photo above, and article linked-are worth re-posting here: 
"As seen with McCain 2014,  Oleh Tyahnybok leader (Fuhrer) of the ultra-nationalist political party Svoboda(1) (Social-Nationalist Party) leading figure both during and after the coup which ousted Yanukovich, along with other neo-nazi outfits such as Right Sector (Praviy Sektor) led by Hitler wannabee Dmitry Yarosh who spearheaded the coup in Kiev; these have been joined or changed their names to inter alia the Radical Party, and Patriots of the Ukraine. These neo-nazi outfits have been supplemented by the fully militarised punitive right-wing militias, most notoriously the Azov Regiment responsible for numerous atrocities in the Don Bas.
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(1) The Social-Nationalist party as it was formerly known chose as its logo an amended version of the Wolfsangel, a symbol used by many SS divisions on the Eastern front during World War II."
(2) In commemoration of this 'great honor', can the street be painted red and a black swastika every ten meters with John McCain’s name on each arm.  This evil man McCain and his murderous associates, deserve to be remembered for the next century as the foul humans they were."
off-guardian.org/2018/09/20/kievs-ivan-kudrya-street-to-become-john-mccain-street/

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Once again Ukrainians are "sacrificed" for other nations and power players benefit.  As one of my Ukrainian colleagues remarked after a US military trainer insulted the "lack of effort" made by their Ukrainian trainees, "Why should we train harder and learn more effective ways of killing our brothers?   In the end, we are all Ukrainians fighting for other people's interests.   We should not be enemies of each other." 

​There are sane American voices urging a different policy toward both Ukraine and Russia.   Read this article excerpted below for cogent arguments from a defense journal.   www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/03/12/it-is-a-mistake-to-arm-ukraine/  "At its heart, international politics is about strategic competition between states. It is a cutthroat game that forces all countries, including the United States, to make wise, informed decisions about which battles are in the national interest to fight and which are left for the region itself to manage.  Picking a fight with a declining, nuclear power over Ukraine is the exact opposite of wise; remember, Ukraine is not an ally.  Russia has so much more at stake in the outcome than the U.S., so the former will always be more willing to make the necessary sacrifices to achieve its desired political end state".

"Ukraine has promised U.S. construction firms contracts for future infrastructure projects in Don bass, brokered a $80 million coal deal with the U.S., signed a $1 billion deal with GE Transportation for new locomotives, and hired former Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour to help Ukraine lobby the Trump administration."     
​www.cato.org/blog/ukraine-trump-javelin-missiles
​www.rt.com/politics/441098-kremlin-defend-russian-ukraine/

A younger Yulia Tymoshenko with Vladimir Putin-perhaps he is displaying his bear claws?

For the past months there has been a concerted effort by the Russian Orthodox church to avert a schism and by Russian President Putin to support former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko.   Tymoshenko has learned from her years in various positions in the Ukrainian government and from her experience in prison.
Tymoshenko, who was Ukraine's prime minister from 2007 to 2010, was jailed on embezzlement charges following her government's defeat by Yanukovych in 2010.  Her sentence was viewed by most of the international community as a political move to block her as a viable opponent. She was released in February 2014, and later reelected to parliament.    She has already announced her run for the presidency. The election will be held in the Fall of 2019.  www.rferl.org/a/ukrainian-opposition-leader-tymoshenko-announces-presidential-run/29306750.html 

Tymoshenko has contacted members of the current US Congress and President
Trump, by hiring professional lobbyists.   She intends to maintain positive relations with NATO members, as well as honor the Minsk accords.

Yulia Tymoshenko is a professed Orthodox Christian and was leader of the Social Christian Party of Ukraine established in 2004.   She vows to investigate and clean up corruption, fight for Ukrainian unity including keeping Crimea.   She does not need any pushing from the USA for "gender equity" since she is a living example of courage, endurance, competence, diplomatic skills with grace as a survivor, and a mother who speaks: Ukrainian, Russian and English.   Let's hope she can rally the necessary votes, energy and fortitude for the battles ahead and the balms to soothe the wounds of the ongoing civil conflict in her beautiful country.

www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/the-remarkable-resurgence-of-yulia-tymoshenko

I do hold a special affection for Ukraine.  In 2015, I was selected to start the first Medical English program for doctors, residents and staff at the Ternopil State Medical University in western Ukraine in a new Peace Corps Response project.  In addition, I worked with doctors who worked with the Peace corps main office in Kiev.   I treated them with TCM/Acupuncture after their post trauma reactions affected them post Maidan.

My personal experience over a number of months, living in the faculty housing at TSMU and working as well as travelling in Ukraine with a number of colleagues, left me with feelings of deep respect for the strong, intelligent, hard working and humble people I encountered.  I was invited to "camp retreats" for residents and doctors re-located from Donbass and spoke personally with a number of military medicine doctors at the new wing of TSMU about their experiences in the conflict areas of Ukraine, before I returned to work in Afghanistan.  There were many similarities in cases and in treatment/triage protocols and in post trauma reactions in the military and civilian populations affected.

Please be alert in the USA.  I see similar splitting tactics are being used against our own citizens.   The newly formed "Vote Common Good" headed by "pastor" Doug Pagitt of Minnesota, which uses "progressive evangelical preaching"   (made up stuff-MSU ) includes such psychological techniques as re-writing the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5:8) beatitudes:  "Blessed are the damn givers......"  pushing LGBT agendas, campaigning for open borders and adopting the anti-Trump, anti anything Trump does/did-as their platform.   

This group tries to turn Christians against Christians in the political realm.   They do not condemn violence by Democrats and the "Antifa", far left participants.  They are utilizing the "divide and conquer" tactics, too.   They urge people not to vote Republican and to "convert other Christians" to their cause.  They are actually endorsed by a Democratic congressman Ted Lieu from California, a number of "reverends" from New York city who say they are pro-family values, yet they 'progressively' advocate abortion, LGBT agendas, open borders and are opposed to the Trump tax cuts.  They claim only they are the "righteous voters".   Be advised.  www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/us/politics/democrats-progessive-evangelical-election.html

Fortunately I am still in contact with some of my former colleagues from Ukraine.  I hold them in my heart, my memories and my prayers.  I hope you will, too.  This week I am  Including a short video of Ukrainian national dance, music and dancers-no, this is not "Russian" it is Ukrainian, but you may see similarities in moves, costumes and physical features.    (click on  the YouTube link below please)
 
​Actually, since DNA testing is in the news this week, a search regarding genes presents Russian/Ukrainian genomes as in the same "segments" and distinctly different from German, Armenian, Turkish, English or Jewish genes.  They are related physiologically more to "Russians" than any other ethnic group.  Regardless of your political affiliations and opinions-I hope you can enjoy and appreciate the artistry, athleticism and beauty of this performance.  Do take a few minutes to watch this national treasure which is unique to these people and their country over time. This is not a diluted "global" pc dance/music collection created just for commercial entertainment.  It is authentic!   www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQlJ6hWhqdY

Dobre den (Good evening or good afternoon in Ukrainian) and duzhe dyakuyu (thank you very much) for taking the time to read my missives.  Your constructive comments are always appreciated.

​Jo

Opening of the Military Medicine department of Ternopil State Medical University, August 2015, Ukraine with some of my esteemed colleagues