Global SITREP A8-22: How Far Will God Let Russia Go in its Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine?

 

Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts of Ukraine

UPDATE 25 February 2022: Firstly, it has become painfully apparent in the past 24 hours that all of those folks who heretofore had expressed high levels of distrust of the Lame Stream Media, both foreign and domestic, and its rampant "fake news" campaigns of recent memory have had been camped at their feeding trough like hordes of people starved of information. 

Eschatology Today has warned extensively throughout the past seven years (at a minimum) that none of the MSM's product is to be trusted or taken at face value. The MSM remains controlled and staffed by Western globalist interests and elites. The rampant disinformation and pure, politically motivated propaganda coming from the MSM at present is on a scale that this observer has not seen previously. Their agenda has not changed one iota. Their objectives remain the same. Many hours of intensive data mining has proven this observation to be absolutely correct. Which devil is acceptable to these people, the one from the East or the one from the West?

The conflict in Ukraine and its end-state is a known-unknown, but as we all know God is in control. What we need to see and understand right now is that events are taking place that are leading to other events, both prophetic and otherwise. Patience of saints is called for and well as being watchmen and students of the Lord's Holy Words. Nothing else really matters in the short-term because, in the words of our Lord, "all these things must take place, but the end is not yet." Just keep looking up until He comes to take us up! Marana'tha!

24 February 2022: As of 5 AM Kyiv time on 24 February 2022 the Union State (Russian Federation and Belarus) has been engaged in a full-scale war against pro-Western Ukraine. Ballistic and cruise missiles have rocked Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro and other Ukrainian cities and bases, depots and assembly areas of the Ukrainian Armed forces throughout the entire territory of Ukraine. Russian forces, backed also by the forces of Belarus have attacked into Ukraine on at least five different axes of advance. The Budapest Memorandum in which Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for a Russian guarantee of Ukrainian sovereignty, peace and security is now a worthless piece of rubbish. Israel needs to pay very close attention.

22 February 2022: Leading the way for news and information of prophetic consequence, the obvious detail not seen as yet in MSM or 99.99% of other reporting, is that the "occupied" territory of Ukraine's two oblasts (provinces) of Luhansk and Donetsk is less than half of their full-size territory as the map above illustrates. Dark blue is occupied, medium tan is un-occupied and still under Ukrainian government control, and the light tan is the rest of Ukraine's territory.

This leads to the question Eschatology Today is now considering: How far will God allow Russia to go before the prophetic hooks are put in Gog of Magog's jaws (Ezekiel 38:4)?  Will Russian armor press forward beyond the current "line of control" which is marked by WWI-like trenches along the entire length of the blue-medium-tan divide to take all of Luhansk and Donetsk? Or will the invading Russian armored forces sweep west through the important port of Mariupol and along Ukraine's Sea of Azov coastline to link up with the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula? 

Ukraine in full

And why stop there? Why not continue westward to Odessa to link up with Russian forces in the sliver of land in eastern Moldova known as Transnistria seen in the map below? If you heard Vladimir Putin's nonsensical speech yesterday, what he said included all of these other locations. In fact, what he said includes the whole of Ukraine! And depending on how far this goes, be mindful that Romania is NATO, and Moldova is a member of NATO's "Partners for Peace" program and has a mutual defense pact with Romania. Moldova and Romania were, not so long ago, one country known as Bessarabia, and they could be again. 

Transnistrian Region Map

This, in a nutshell, is where the MSM news and analysis of the day will eventually go. As usual, you've seen and heard it here first, in cutting edge graphic format. What we also are aware of is what the MSM is currently ignorant of - the prophecy of Ezekiel 38/39. Yet still, and what is more, major events and great conflict will now have to take place in and around Israel. Our eyes are wide open and we watch as our Lord has commanded us because "these things must take place."

Global SITREP C9:16: Continuing Wars and Rumors of Wars

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council to discuss additional security measures for Crimea after clashes on the contested peninsula, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, August 11, 2016. Sputnik/Kremlin/Alexei Druzhinin/via REUTERS

12 August 2016: In a comment posted three days ago in the previous SITREP the rumors circulating regarding the possibility of a resumption of military action by Russia against the Ukraine were offered to the readers as a kind of heads-up. As of yesterday, those rumors began the transition towards becoming reality. 

As we look towards the rapidly approaching time fore the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38/39, an ongoing Russian military adventure could potentially be the activity that God will turn Russia away from with hooks secured in her jaws towards the land of Israel. A resumption of war against Ukraine, which occurs as the result of manufactured pretexts currently occurring in Crimea, qualifies for such an ongoing military adventure to the north of Israel.

Yesterday, as evidenced by the above image, Putin covered multiple military "scenarios" of what he said were "counter-terrorism security measures" on land, sea and in the air around Crimea. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko promptly placed his country's military forces on their highest state of combat preparedness. Ukrainian forces will initially face the threat posed by 40,000 Russian combat troops which have been deployed up against Ukraine's border regions. These troops are armed with the newest equipment and include units whose express mission is offensive air assault. Similar preparatory actions are in progress with Russia's Black Sea Fleet and air force combat squadrons.

There are also unconfirmed reports that internet access has been cut-off in the region of northern Crimea. These developments are being watched closely.

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Another key and related item to Ezekiel 38/39 that we must pay attention to as watchmen is the aftermath of the failed coup d'etat in Turkey.  Within NATO the United States of America stands as the alliance's most powerful military force. Not many realize the second most powerful military force in the alliance prior to the coup  attempt on 15-16 July 2016 was Turkey. Was is the operative word.

In the nearly four weeks since the coup attempt Turkish military power, and morale, and effectiveness as a leading fighting force has all but disappeared. A full 44% of Turkey's experienced combat command structure no longer exists as 157 of the armed forces generals and admirals were summarily discharged. Some stand to be executed. Another 8,500 officers of lesser rank and non-commissioned leadership have also been purged from the force.

In addition to these losses, all Turkish military infrastructure, such as manufacturing plants and shipyards, have been removed from military control and transferred to civilian entities loyal to the dictate of the ruling Islamist AKP party; all military preparatory high schools and service warfighting academies have been shuttered. Military hospitals have fallen under AKP-controlled health ministry. Key Turkish anti-terrorist functionaries such as the gendarmerie and coast guard have been transferred to interior ministry control.  

This leaves the formerly powerful Turkish armed forces a headless, hollowed out, state-of-shock and combat ineffective image of its former self.  The Turkish armed forces are presently in no position to defend the country against an intrusion of a foreign enemy much less prosecute offensive operations beyond the national border. Turkish armed forces in this sad state of affairs are of little to no use to NATO as a bulwark against foreign aggression in Europe of the Middle East. NATO's southern flank now has a gaping hole to the east of Greece, making it a frontline country facing the battlefields of the Middle East.

The Kurdish national desire for a homeland of their own could not have been given a better gift by the Islamists of the AKP. In the Kurds decades long struggle against the Turkish central government never has the fortunes of their armed struggle looked brighter. Anticipating a Kurdish military exploitation of this situation is a virtual no-brainer. The effect this all has in the war against the Islamic State has not yet become manifest, but almost certainly guarantees an increase of US and other NATO forces to fill the vacuum caused by the AKPs demolition of its armed forces.

Global SITREP B20-14: Bible Prophecy Front and Center

4 April 2014: The purpose of this SITREP is to illustrate how Bible prophecy is literally being manifest in current world events. These are events which everyone who is being a watchman of world events relative to specific Bible prophecy can witness to with their own eyes and ears in living color via satellite and cable television broadcasts. Bible prophecy coming to pass in front of our eyes from verses almost no one has paid real careful attention to before now, plus other verses which clearly indicate a very clear sequence for these major events, and why we should be exuberantly looking up for our Harpazo by the Lord draws ever closer!

To begin with, lets take Ezekiel 38/39. I think all of us have read these two prophetic chapters as well as an endless stream of articles giving various interpretations on the basics, and that's all fine and dandy. However, it's when one pays attention to the little noticed details that one actually notices them occurring in real-time, as in right now real-time, that one can feel the Holy Spirit leap within you. This happened to me last evening.

The verse that I would like to call your attention to is Ezekiel 38:7 where the LORD God is speaking through the prophet Ezekiel directly to the man who is known as "Gog, of the land of Magog." and He says:

“Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them."

In this single sentence the LORD God has instructed Gog to prepare (Hebrew: kuwn qahal: meaning to be prepared as in a very high state of readiness for war or invasion) the military forces of his own country, the military forces of those countries he also has direct control over, as well as all those military forces of the other countries that are also in this military alliance with him, and to be a guard for them. The Hebrew word for guard here is mishmar, meaning a diligent ward or overwatch for their military capabilities.

In very recent news and as a direct result of the Russian invasion and annexation of the Crimean Autonomous Republic from Ukraine, the United States and our NATO allies in the EU have taken various economic measures known as sanctions. Most important of them was the one which resulted in kicking the Russian Federation out of the exclusive economic club, formerly known as the G8, but now just being the G7 (yes, 7 nations in a Trans-Atlantic and Global economic alliance which also includes Japan!).

In direct retaliation for these sanctions the Russian's have served notice to the G7 that they will henceforth act as guardian of the Iranian nuclear program in the upcoming round of talks which resume shortly following a 6-month hiatus during which Iran was supposed to have accomplished some benchmark reductions and shutdowns of its nuclear program. Now that the time has arrived for a viable Western military option to strike Iran to be raised, Russia has now openly committed to defend Iran's military-purposed nuclear weapons program against the US and Europeans.

Putting aside for a moment the billions upon billions worth of Russian weapons systems sales that are arming all of the the Ezekiel 38/39 Magog military confederation, is this new direct Russian defense of the Iranian nuclear weapons program not a literal fulfillment of Ezekiel 38:7? I absolutely believe it is, and this is why the Holy Spirit leapt inside me when I read about it. This will shortly be, or at least it should be, front page news or the lead story when the "E3/EU+3 Iran Talks" reconvene

Well, everybody knows the Iranians never intended per the negotiated E3/EU+3 interim agreement to reduce their growing nuclear weapons capabilities by even so much as a single spinning centrifuge. But what everybody may not know is the the United States and European Union made a hard promise to Israel to keep the Iranian military strike option on-the-table. This promise is what directly prevented Israel from launching their own well-planned and  devastating unilateral strike against Iranian nuclear infrastructure targets in the summer of 2012. Now Russia's actions in Crimea and the very real Indications and Warnings (I&W) of an even larger Russian invasion of the rest of Ukraine probably have Israel's military commanders pounding on the conference table even before Bibi Netanyahu strolls into the room. If those IDF commanders understood Bible prophecy they'd know that God has a pair of hooks from which there is no escape in His hand that He will soon put to use. The appointed hour approaches.

Now to another item which I have posted on and written about many times in the past 5 years or so. Isaiah 17. And as much as I have read that prophetic chapter, and have believed it would be the event which launches the final battles of the ongoing Psalm 83 war (1947 to the present), it wasn't until very early in the morning the other day that I noticed something in those texts which even more directly points to a sequence of Isaiah 17 preceding Psalm 83.

We're all very aware of what occurs in Isaiah 17. The focus is always on the total destruction of Damascus, then of the cities of Aroer, and then of central Israel (Ephraim). It is the end result of the military action which results in the destruction of Damascus that I noticed is more profound and prophetic than I previosuly saw it to be.

Isaiah 17:12-13 reads:

"Woe to the multitude of many people
Who make a noise like the roar of the seas,
And to the rushing of nations
That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!

The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters;
But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind."

Who are those many gentile people who are making a noise like the roar of the seas that Isaiah prophesies about? A rushing of gentile nations going where and to do what?

Of course, they are the gentile Arab Shi'a and Sunni Muslims nations and peoples from Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza and the Sinai in a headlong jihad rush to attack and destroy Israel so "the name of Israel may be remembered no more" (Psalm 83:4). Why do they suddenly rush in to do this? Because Israel has just destroyed to the point of complete obliteration the oldest Arab Islamic capital city in the world. But what happens when they come rushing in? The result is that these nations God rebukes them, they are chased like chaff off mountains before a wind, like a rolling thing before the Cuwphah (Sufa).

So why do I conclude that Isaiah 17 precedes the finale of Psalm 83? Because of the very specific language the singing prophet (chozeh) Asaph was inspired of the Lord's Spirit to use in his description of the military result of Psalm 83. This military result was nearly achieved in 1948, and again 1967 and again in 1973. This next time it will absolutely be achieved. Asaph's specific prophetic language in Psalm 83:13-15

"O my God, make them like the whirling dust,
Like the chaff before the wind! 

As the fire burns the woods,
And as the flame sets the mountains on fire, 

 So pursue them with Your tempest,
And frighten them with Your storm."

It appears to me that these two prophets, first Asaph and then Isaiah, were inspired by the same Holy Spirit to prophesy about the same event but from slightly different perspectives and about 400 years apart from each other. It is these two distinct perspectives about this great military defeat that is strongly suggestive of and reinforces what I have come to understand about their place in the sequence in events preceding the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38/39 which immediately precedes the start of the 70th Week. In this these verses sequence provide an explanation of why the resultant rushing of the Arab nations in Isaiah 17 occurs only after Damascus is obliterated, and why Aram-Syria-Damascus does not appear at all within the nations and peoples specified in Psalm 83.

Addendum: As a final note to the sequence of Isaiah 17 immediately followed by Psalm 83 being thereafter followed by Ezekiel 38/39, I again submit the confirming prophecies found in Isaiah 11:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:24-26.

Global SITREP B17-14: Crunch (Slush) Time in Crimea

FINAL UPDATE 20 March 2014: For all intents and purposes the Crimean Crisis is now over. The Russian Federation won with a military invasion, but without resorting to full-scale combat. Ukrainian forces are retreating out of Crimea which is now the de facto sovereign territory of the Russian Federation. We'll now watch for Putin's gaze to settle upon the next parcel of post-Soviet territorial reconstitution.

18 March 2014: The Russian annexation of Crimea is now a cold, hard fact that will not be undone without war in Europe on a scale not seen since World War II. Russia, in the person of President Vladimir Putin, has thumbed his nose at the US/EU and NATO and declared his intent to wage war against us in defense of Russian interests. For this declaration Putin received a standing ovation by the members of the Russian Parliament. A further Russian military invasion of additional territory in southern and eastern Ukraine may very well follow in the coming hours.

With the confirmed death of one Ukrainian officer and the severe wounding of another today at their base in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, the remainder of Ukrainian troops are now in receipt of their rules of engagement as authorized by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. That authorization is to "use weapons to defend and protect the lives of Ukrainian servicemen." Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted this war, now it looks like he has achieved it.

14 March 2014: The above map has been borrowed from a FoxNews.com report published yesterday.  It correctly illustrates four indisputable facts-on-the-ground with which Russia must deal forcibly to overcome should the anticipated annexation of Crimea move forward on Sunday and Monday next week.

The first indisputable fact is that a considerable amount of Ukrainian and Russian armor face each other across 25 miles of no-mans land along the only two overland routes between pro-Russia Crimea and pro-Ukraine Kherson Oblast. Ukrainian forces have enough combat firepower at these two choke points to hold their ground and/or repel any Russian assault northwards. By no means are they merely a speed bump for the Russians as Kherson Oblast is heavily populated by Ukrainians loyal to the new government in Kiev.

The second, third and fourth indisputable facts are the water, electric and natural gas supplies that Ukraine controls and has heretofore provided to the Crimean populace. A vote to join Russia will be a vote to cut off these supplies. Hence it will be utilities crunch time in Crimea thereafter. The Crimean economy will come to a screeching halt and the tens of thousands of Russian soldiers now there will become a burden upon the populace because they will be consuming a large portion of whatever water, electric and natural gas reserves are in Crimea. Hopefully they thought ahead and have been saving them for a rainy day, but I would not bet my next paycheck on it.

That will leave Vladimir Putin and his military commanders two unsavory options. Evacuate Crimea and return it to the status quo which existed prior to their invasion, or to get all froggy and jump with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Frogs usually do not realize when they have jumped into boiling water that death will come swiftly, so a retreat back to their barracks of origin seems to be the best option. Again, I would not bet my next paycheck on Vladimir Putin and his generals being that smart either. The risks are enormous. However, let us pray cooler heads prevail this time around.

Global SITREP B14-14: A Primer on the Crisis in Ukraine and Crimea

6 March 2013: Since 1991 Crimea has  been an autonomous republic within the framework of the unitary post-Soviet Ukrainian state. There are many autonomous republics  throughout the territory of the former Soviet Union, most are in Russia itself, and Ukraine has one - Avtonomna Respublika Krym / Autonomous Republic of Crimea.  

Crimea is an  autonomous parliamentary republic that is governed by the Constitution of Crimea which established its autonomy and authority within Ukraine. The Crimean Autonomous Republic has its own independent budget and manages the sum of its territory as its own property.

On May 5, 1992 the Crimean parliament declared itself to be independent; its Constitution became the law of the land on the same day. Ukraine unilaterally annulled this declaration seven days later. Ultimately in 1992 a compromise was agreed to between the Ukrainian and Crimean parliaments and Crimea reverted to being an autonomous republic within Ukraine.

In 1994 the Crimean parliament wrote a new Constitution for itself. In 1995 Ukraine under pro-Russian president Leonid Kuchma began direct rule of Crimea by presidential decree. Thus the Crimean people's desire to see to their own affairs was quashed by totalitarianism from Kiev. Later in 1995 a new Crimean Constitution was drafted and ratified by all parties in December 1998. Article 135 of the Ukrainian constitution mandates that any Crimean constitution must be approved by the Ukrainian parliament.

Herein lies the crux of Vladimir Putin's claim of indigenous Crimean forces (ethnic Russians for the most part) overthrowing totalitarian rule from Kiev.  What we know about this is that Russian Spetsnaz (Special Forces) made this overthrow possible. The Russian actions constitutes preemptive foreign military intervention in the affairs of a foreign state and one of its autonomous republics.

In my assessment what this crisis is about is an undemocratic coup d'etat in Ukraine that was followed in very short order by another undemocratic coup d'etat in Crimea which was born of over 20 years of totalitarian struggles between former Soviet Republics.

In my opinion we (NATO/US) do not have a dog in this fight. This is about former Soviet states continuing to sort their own affairs out. All of Ukraine should put its existence to a referendum, let the individual Oblasts and autonomous regions and cities of Ukraine decide who they want to be a part of, or not be a part of, and let them do it peacefully.