Ukraine and the Migrant Crisis
“…the old concepts of fighting big tank battles on European land mass are over.” Boris Johnson, 21st November 2021
That was an opinion held by many, perhaps most of us, as recently as this time last year. Yet 2022 will now always be associated with the return of war to Europe. The resulting refugee crisis is the biggest humanitarian situation in Europe since WWII.
As always, this edition of Vista considers different perspectives. My lead article looks at the statistics. Kristy Williams, Ruslan Maliuta, and Yuriy Kulakevych take a view from inside Ukraine, Rafał Piekarski and Barbora Filipová then consider the impact on the gateway countries, the nations that border Ukraine and took the initial flows, and then Jo Appleton looks at the other receiving countries and their response to the crisis.
Yet we also wanted to get a Russian perspective. Pavel Kolesnikov´s article makes sober reading, not least because it avoids any kind of political engagement, focussing exclusively on the love that is also being shown by Russian churches. Vista concludes with an article about a platform that has emerged to foster collaboration in the refugee response.
In these times of war, may Vista feed your prayers and actions and “your feet (be) fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace” (Eph. 6:15)
Jim Memory