and the Lessons for Christians today.
Anyone who has been following the invasion of Ukriane over the last 7 months will have noticed some clear difference between the two key leaders in the conflict. Vladimir Putin began this war by launching an unjustified invasion of a neighboring country. We all heard his claims of “denazifying” Ukraine and restoring the unity of the Russian people. But the claims rang false as the evidence accumulated of atrocities committed by his invading Army and his repeated attacks on civilians to create fear. His response to criticism from the outside world was to deny all of it. No amount of evidence was enough to change the narrative. His responses to criticism from within Russia was even more devasting. Silence dissent with imprisonment. Punish anyone who dares to disagree with the official narrative.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the other hand appealed to the world for help by appealing to the values that most of us hold dear: freedom of a nation to decide its own destiny, freedom to express dissent, and a willingness to fight against what appeared to be insurmountable odds. He masterfully wove in the historical narratives of the people he was appealing to with his own story to illustrate our common ground. And he appealed to our better nature to support the victims, and punish that aggressors through many different means.