One world event that has been bringing me a lot of sadness is the war between Russia and Ukraine. I know many don’t want to hear about it, but this is just something that is stuck in my throat.
Of course, we understand that wars are a feature of the age we live, in and are to a certain extent inevitable, as long as most people don’t become devotees, but this particular war is different from others in the sense of that it has been affecting large groups of devotees.
The war brought a great shock to thousands of Ukrainian devotees who had to abandon their homes on very short notice and go on dangerous journeys through occupied territories in the Kherson region, Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk, and so on, sometimes under fire, to eventually reach neutral countries like Georgia or Armenia through Russian territory, from where they could eventually go to countries in Europe. These were quite long and difficult journeys, but they were in a sense the lucky ones because they could at least travel with their families. Ukraine decreed martial law right at the start of the war and prevented all able-bodied men from leaving the country. This led many families to have to separate, with the women and children going to Europe to escape the war, and the men staying in Ukraine to face an uncertain future. This affected, literally, thousands of families of devotees, and many of these families are still separated. Apart from that, many devotees were conscripted into the army, and many of them already died. Months ago a partial list was published with 19 names, and unfortunately, this list is already outdated.
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