As the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine continues with demonstrable war crimes what should we do?

1. Pray without ceasing. We have access to our God, and we need to continually hold the situation before God. 
2. We need to become as informed as we can about the situation without succumbing to living in social media constantly, a destabilising recipe. At present Craig is reading Andrew Wilson, Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation, and Serhy Yekelchyk, The Conflict in Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know. From the Sibylline Leaves above you will see that Craig strongly recommends that everyone reads Bill Browder’s Red Notice. You can also listen to multiple interviews and talks by Browder on YouTube. Understanding what leads to such violence (see above) is vital to preventing it in the first place, and constraining it now.  
3. Respond with appropriate outrage and legitimate anger – an unjustified invasion of a sovereign country is simply wrong.
4. By developing a small group in your church that does the hard work and thinking on such issues and keeps the community informed. When Hitler rose to power in Germany, many Dutch churches studied Mein Kampf and thus were informed and prepared to oppose the evil seeping across Europe. We need to become well informed about Putin and his colleagues. We need to learn all we can about Russia and how it has become the police state that it now is. This includes listening carefully to reliable Russian voices which can help us gain a critical perspective on Western actions and how we may have contributed to the current situation. 
5. By reading at least one book on this pattern of abhorrent behaviour by the Russian State. There are many good books out there. I particularly recommend Browder’s Red Notice and Harding’s A Very Expensive Poison.  
6. By encouraging and keeping the pressure on our governments through writing to the relevant UK, European and American, etc., government officials, praising them for their united action where appropriate and pressing them to remain resolute in their opposition to the invasion. Pressure needs to be put on the countries that abstained from the recent vote in the UN condemning the invasion. I think here, for example, of my beloved South Africa. We may wonder if sanctions have any effect. They do. Through Browder’s work and against far too many odds, in December 2012, the United States passed the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which imposes visa sanctions and asset freezes on those involved in Sergei’s arrest, torture and death, as well as on other gross human rights abusers. In March 2012 a motion was unanimously passed in the House of Commons in the UK, calling on the government to impose visa sanctions and asset freezes on the Russian officials who falsely arrested, tortured and killed Sergei Magnitsky and then covered up the crime. For all of this and more see Browder’s website www.billbrowder.com When Trump became president, the first thing Putin did was to send a representative to his team to request that they get rid of the Magnitsky Act. Sanctions matter to Putin! We need to make sure the Magnitsky Act, and other such legislation, is significantly enhanced. 
7. As the war drags on, we need to remain engaged. It will end! and then we need to make sure sanctions are not lifted too quickly and that the war crimes are properly investigated and the guilty held accountable.
8. By doing all we can to support the refugees flooding into Poland and Europe. 
9. By refusing to forget – let 24 February 2022 be engraved in our memories – and by honoring the memory of those who have been slain. KLC commits to remembering this date each year. Work with us in this respect. 
10. By doing all we can to support honest, rigorous, investigative journalism. Truth matters! Such journalists – to put it mildly – have not fared well in Russia. Courtesy of modern media we witness daily the remarkable courage of journalists in Ukraine.