Again, waking early and listening to news reports from the Ukraine, with more reports of brutal assaults on Kharkiv and Mariupol. Ukrainian fatalities in the first week of invasion are thought to be two thousand, including children. Numbers of people fleeing the country have risen to eight hundred thousand, and will continue to rise as violence intensifies. Putin's Russia seems immune to international outrage, but harsher economic sanctions around the world, against super rich individuals, state and private businesses are starting to have an impact.
The market price of oil and gas continues to rise, and the knock on effect is likely to be global recession by the end of the year, experts say. Part of the global economy depend on the gas and oil Russia produces. It's now the regime's only source of revenue, but this trade hasn't yet been shut down. In fact it has increased, perhaps because countries are buying to stockpile energy resources before it too is sanctioned. Quite apart from what's happening militarily, it really is like watching a disaster happen in slow motion.
After breakfast I went to St Catherine's for the Eucharist of the Day and Ashing ceremony. There were a dozen of us. Mthr Frances preached around a story from a Harry Potter story. As I haven't read any of those novels or paid attention to the movies when shown on telly, I didn't really get the message. Perhaps my mind was too preoccupied with making sense of the Ukraine situation. It was what people were talking about over coffee after the service. I was reminded of the impact of the Syrian conflict, and before that the Bosnian conflict had on me when they happened. Praying aright when you're unable to make sense of anything is always a struggle I guess.
After church I returned home and worked on next week's biblical reflection for my weekly Morning Prayer upload, then cooked lunch while Clare was out shopping. Later in the afternoon, I walked for an hour and a half just in Llandaff Fields. There was a group of Cathedral School kids and teachers running in circuits around the footpath. I'm not sure if this was an after school athletic training session or a junior Park Run type leisure activity, but it was good to see them making the effort.
The only things compelling interest on telly after supper was 'Digging for Britain' and Channel 4 News, for a different group of news reporters telling stories and interviewing people in Ukraine in different locations from those used by the Beeb. In the home news this evening is the shut down on the Kremlin backed English language TV channel Russia Today. The British government was still getting around to imposing sanctions against the broadcaster, but has been trumped by EU broadcast sanctions, forcing shut down, right in the middle of a programme.
This suggests sudden implementation of the withdrawal of technical services by European satellite network providers preventing its continuation. The USA has closed its entire air space to Russian aircraft as well. Will all these measures be enough to make Putin and his generals think again? It may be some time before we find out, unless a miracle happens, and I'm praying for something unexpected to surprise us all. And I don't mind what kind of miracle it is.
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