Prayer Alert – Ukraine

From the Presidential Prayer Team’s Prayer Watch:

The U.S. and European leaders stepped up their denunciations of Moscow’s move to seize the autonomous region that remains home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet despite Ukrainian independence in 1991. There are also reports that partisans, possibly aided by Moscow, are on the move elsewhere in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east.

Secretary of State John Kerry, who has described Moscow’s military intervention in the Crimea an “incredible act of aggression,” will travel to Ukraine’s capital on Tuesday to meet with the country’s embattled government.

Over the weekend, President Obama spent nearly 90 minutes on the phone with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, voicing his deep concern over Russian military movements. He said ’there will be costs’ to Russian intervention there.

President Obama is under pressure from members of the House and Senate Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees to turn Putin out of the G-8, which Putin is scheduled to host in Sochi later this year, and to “revisit the missile defense shield.” Others have suggested the imposition of immediate sanctions against Russia.

Meanwhile, there are reports that Russia has issued an ultimatum to Ukrainian forces to clear out of Crimea by Tuesday morning or face a “military storm.”. (SOURCES :New York Times, CNN, Fox News, Reuters, BBC News)

As the Lord leads, please pray:

• About the situation in the Crimean regions of Ukraine and the response of the Ukraine military to Russia’s demands
• For wisdom for President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and leaders of the NATO alliance and G-8 relative to actions with respect to Russia.
• For the people of the Crimean region of Ukraine who are primarily ethnic Russian and have opposed the new government that has taken power last week in Kiev.