St. Cloud Missionary Talks About Ukraine’s People’s Psyche As War Rages

(KNSI) – A missionary who’s lived in Ukraine and visited the country hundreds of times since 1998 says its people won’t surrender. One week ago, Russia invaded Ukraine after weeks of military build-up along its borders.

Bill Arvan has spent significant time with the Ukrainian people and says the people are committed to fighting.

“1,000%. And that’s why eventually they will prevail. It may take them generations, but they will never accept the Putins agenda for their country. They will never accept it.”

He says the new generation in Ukraine believes their nation is worth fighting to keep.

“I think the ferocity with which Ukrainians have risen up to defend their land, their culture, their language, their history, their future, their children, their lives. They’re fighting, because they’re defending their motherland.”

Arvan says the generation of Ukrainians born after the collapse of the Soviet Union grew up with new freedoms and have come of age. He says many in Ukraine felt betrayed by their government because it didn’t integrate into Western European culture the way many young people wanted. He says protests and unrest broke out in Ukraine in 2013 and extended into 2014 when former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted. Arvan says Yanukovych was Russian President Vladamir Putin’s puppet in Ukraine and the former president stole billions of dollars from the nation.

Arvan says Putin is invading his neighbor because he’s afraid of a democratic Ukraine.

“Putin can’t except the distinctiveness of Ukrainian society, and its culture and you seeking to suppress it. And I think, honestly, that Putin is terrified that what Ukrainians have aspired to for well over a century will spill over into Russia, and it will inflame Russian people to aspire to the same things.”

He says if that happens, Putin won’t remain in power. Arvan says the invasion of Crimea in 2014 was revenge for Ukrainians standing up for themselves, and the two sides have been fighting ever since.

Arvan says he hopes other nations like the United States continue to support Ukraine’s resistance.

“I don’t think they’re asking us to come and fight their battle for them. But they’re asking for supplies for resources to fight back. It’s David and Goliath. They have one stone and they’re saying they want a few more.”

___