Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.
It’s hardly over, but measured by her heart and spirit, Ukraine has already defeated the Russian host. No matter how much damage and killing inflicted upon that beleaguered but proud people, they have shown both resistance and resilience and world opinion, finally, is overwhelmingly on their side (soon President Putin’s only friend will be President Xi of China and you can bet the latter autocrat is seriously taking stock of that friendship).
Ukraine’s history is far older than Russia’s, being settled by Slavs as far back as the 5th century. It was Christianized with the baptism of Prince Vladimir the Great of Kiev in 988, in fact, metropolitans of the Russian Orthodox Church were all successors of his until 1488. Despite Ukraine’s tortured history over the centuries, Ukrainians have held firmly to their religion and culture despite numerous attempts by the Russians-Soviets to snuff them out. Even today, 72% of Ukrainians are observant Christians, the great majority of them Eastern Orthodox, with a smattering of others, including Catholicism.
There is an inspiring story in Fox News today about a young Ukrainian couple engaged to be wed. They set a date but agreed if the Russians invaded before that they would marry immediately. That they did, soon after the invasion began. As soon as the wedding was over however, instead of going on a wedding trip, both bride and groom immediately signed on with the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces and are spending their honeymoon fighting the Russians.
If this pious and brave young couple is representative of most Ukrainians, and by all appearances they are, Putin and his army are in for a long struggle with that country, not likely to see victory and never to see surrender.
The Taos Tatler 