JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
LOOKOUT IF RUSSIA - MUSLIMS ATTACK ISRAEL WHILE THIS WAR IS ON. BETWEEN MAR 1 - APR 15 WHEN THE 500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS ARE IN ISRAEL. THE 300 MILLION SLAUGHTER OF ISRAELS ENEMIES WILL BE IF ITS THIS TIME IN HISTORY.
DISEASES-ANIMAL TO HUMAN
REVELATION 6:7-8 (500 MILLION DEAD EACH FROM THE 4 JUDGEMENTS)(2 BILLION TOT DEAD HERE)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 billion) of (8 billion) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS)(500 million) and with hunger,(FAMINE)(500 million) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES)(500 million) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE)(500 million).
THE COVID-19 TOTALS.
WORLD OVER ALL CASES 426,973,352 - DEAD 5,912,592 - AS OF THU FEB 24,2022
Here’s what you need to know about genomic sequencing.What is genomic sequencing? Genomic sequencing analyses the virus sample taken from a diagnosed patient and compares it with other cases.Prior to Covid-19, genomic sequencing has been used in Australia to trace the source of outbreaks of food-borne bacteria and hospital infections.Coronavirus testing in Melbourne-After a Covid-19 test (which gathers saliva from the back of the throat and nose) returns a positive result, the swab used goes through several steps to separate the RNA molecules from mucus proteins so they can be captured, then converted into DNA that can be read.What does that information show? As a virus passes from human to human, the virus changes slightly. While the genome of one Covid-19 patient compared with the person they caught it from will appear almost identical, after the virus has been transmitted onto further people, differences between the strands of the virus they carry become more apparent.Rory Bowden, the head of the Centre for Genomics at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, told the Guardian the information allowed scientists “to do detective work to understand patterns of spread of pathogens in populations”.“The SARS-CoV-2 genome, at more than 30,000 nucleotides, is long for an RNA virus, so while there were few changes initially, there is room for quite a lot of information about each strain’s history to accumulate.”He said that by the time the virus arrived in Australia, the different changes, or mutations, of Covid-19 “define branches on a tree”. Each branch of Covid-19 that exists in Australia could be linked back to China in the original instance, as well as via an outbreak in a foreign country.Bowden said that when Wuhan experienced the first outbreak, the genomes in the city were mostly identical.He said genomic testing was particularly informative for tracing the current outbreaks in Victoria, whereas earlier on in the pandemic in Australia, and in overseas countries recording higher daily totals, the methods would not be as useful.“With SARS-CoV-2, there are still not that many variant positions to tell different branches of the tree apart. The thing that helps us is that in Australia, most cases are linked back, through one or a few generations of transmission, to the virus imported from all around the world by returning travellers,” Bowden said.“If all we had was community spread from a single source introduction to Victoria, it is unlikely we would be able to tell the different clusters apart.” How is genomic sequencing being used in Victoria? Benjamin Howden, who leads the public health epidemiology team at Melbourne University’s Doherty Institute, is currently working with state authorities to use genomic sequencing to track Covid-19 cases.Howden said that as of Friday, about 80% of Victoria’s cases had been genomically sequenced.He said bioinformaticians, who apply information technology to biological and medical research, gathered each patient’s genome data and compared it against other patients in the state.A genomic epidemiologist then matched the historical data of each strand recorded to the patient that provided the sample.How does it help contain outbreaks, and how did this identify a ‘super spreader’? Matching the genomic findings to epidemiological information means authorities can tell if a new patient caught a virus from a known source of the virus, and can work to identify the point or person of transmission.It also means authorities can divert resources more urgently into understanding and containing a case if genomic testing shows someone has caught a strain previously only recorded in a different geographic area.In the case of the “super spreader” suggested on Friday, the genomic data of all of the patients infected by them would have very few variations. This is because the transmissions originated from just one person, as opposed to several people passing it along and giving a strain further chances to mutate.
PROOF HALF ON EARTH DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD (8 BILLION ON EARTH)
REVELATION 6:7-8 (8 BILLION- 2 BILLION = 6 BILLION)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 BILLION) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
REVELATION 9:15,18 (6 BILLION - 2 BILLION = 4 BILLION)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,
18 By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMBS)
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE 17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4 billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.
MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
AMERICA (POLITICAL BABYLON)(NUKED BY SNEAK ATTACK FROM RUSSIA)
IN REVELATION 17 & 18 IS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL BABYLONS.IF YOU CAN NOT DECERN BETWEEN THE 2 BABYLONS IN REV 17 & 18.YOU WILL JUST THINK THEIR BOTH THE SAME.BUT NO-THERES A RELIGIOUS BABYLON (THE VATICAN IN REV 17)(AND THE POLITICAL BABYLON IN REV 18 (AMERICA OR NEW YORK TO BE EXACT)
ISAIAH 34:10
10 It (AMERICA-POLITICAL BABYLON) shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
JEREMIAH 51:29-32 (CYBER ATTACK 1ST)
29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,(AMERICA-NEW YORK) to make the land of Babylon (AMERICA) a desolation without an inhabitant.
30 The mighty men of Babylon (AMERICA) have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
031 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon (NEW YORK) that his city is taken at one end,
32 And that the passages are stopped,(THE WAR COMPUTERS HACKED OR EMP'D) and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.(DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO)
COMPLETE SILENCE AFTER AN EMP GOES OFF
REVELATION 8:1
1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north (RUSSIA) there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon,(AMERICA) and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK CYBER,EMP ATTACK,THEN NUKE ATTACK ON AM
EZEKIEL 39:11-22
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog (RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS) a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers (EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN JORDAN VALLEY) on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog (RUSSIAN) and all his multitude:(ARAB/MUSLIM HORDE) and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.(BURIEL SITE OF THE 300 MILLION,RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS)
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.(OF ISRAEL)
13 Yea, all the people of the land (OF ISRAEL) shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I (GOD-JESUS) shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment,(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMB EXPERTS) passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it,(WON'T TOUCH IT) till the buriers have buried it (PROPERLY) in the valley of Hamongog.(RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS NEW BURIEL SITE)(EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN THE JORDAN VALLEY)
16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.(OF THE ISRAEL-GOD HATERS)
17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl,(500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS THREW ISRAEL EVERY SPRING,FALL) and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.(OF THE RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIM ARMIES)
18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
20 Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.
21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.
Macron warns Russian invasion of Ukraine a ‘turning point’ in European history-French president vows to ‘respond without weakness to this act of war’; UK’s Johnson says Putin’s ‘hideous and barbaric venture… must end in failure’By AFP-FEB 24,22-Today, 5:33 pm
Western leaders on Thursday warned Moscow of an uncompromising response to its wide-scale attack on Ukraine, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson branding Russian President Vladimir Putin a “dictator.”French President Emmanuel Macron described the attack as a turning point in European history. “We will respond without weakness to this act of war, with calm, determination, and unity,” Macron said in an address to the nation.He added that the events were a “turning point in the history of Europe and our country” that would have “deep and lasting consequences for our lives.”Decisions would be taken at meetings of the G7, EU, and NATO in the next hours, he said, adding that the sanctions agreed against Russia would be “up to” the scale of the aggression Moscow had launched.“In the military, economic and energy domains we will be without weakness,” he said.Macron had repeatedly spoken to President Vladimir Putin seeking a diplomatic solution to the standoff but to no avail.After frenetic telephone talks at the weekend, he has not spoken to the Russian leader since Putin on Monday recognized two Ukrainian breakaway regions as independent.The French president had notably unsuccessfully tried to broker a summit between Putin and US President Joe Biden.Macron said that the “massive” Russian attack on Ukraine was “contrary to all the commitments made by the Russian authorities.”“By going back on his word and refusing the diplomatic path and choosing war, President Putin not only decided to attack Ukraine, he decided to tarnish the whole sovereignty of Ukraine,” said Macron.“He decided to inflict the most significant damage on peace and stability in Europe for decades,” Macron added, insisting that France and its partners had “done everything” to try and avert the crisis.Johnson said Putin now faces “massive” Western sanctions for invading Ukraine. “We cannot and will not just look away,” Johnson said in a televised address to the nation, after phoning Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky just after 4:00 a.m. local as Russian forces moved in.Ukraine can be assured of continued UK support given that “our worst fears have now come true and all our warnings have proved tragically accurate,” Johnson said.Ahead of an emergency virtual meeting of G7 leaders, Johnson said the West “will agree a massive package of economic sanctions designed in time to hobble the Russian economy.”“And to that end we must also collectively cease the dependence on Russian oil and gas that for too long has given Putin his grip on Western politics,” he added.“Diplomatically, politically, economically — and eventually, militarily — this hideous and barbaric venture of Vladimir Putin must end in failure.”Johnson was unusually direct in highlighting Putin’s personal role in bringing war back to Europe, calling it “an attack on democracy and freedom in east Europe and around the world.”The “flame of freedom” would return in time to Ukraine, he said.“Because for all his bombs and tanks and missiles, I don’t believe that the Russian dictator will ever subdue the national feeling of the Ukrainians and their passionate belief that their country should be free.”Johnson summoned his security chiefs for an early-morning meeting in response to the Russian invasion, and was also to address parliament at 5:00 p.m. local time.‘Unprecedented’ sanctions-UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who spoke to her US counterpart Antony Blinken Wednesday evening before Putin announced the start of military operations, joined Johnson in condemning the attack.The foreign ministry has deployed teams to five countries in eastern Europe to support Britons leaving Ukraine, she noted.Meanwhile, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he had instructed the UK Civil Aviation Authority to ensure airlines avoid Ukraine airspace “to keep passengers and crew safe.”The UK slapped sanctions Tuesday on five Russian banks and three billionaires, in what Johnson called “the first barrage” of measures in response to the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine.Leading members of Johnson’s ruling Conservatives, as well as the main opposition Labour party, have urged him to hit the Kremlin as hard as possible with the new sanctions.Foreign office minister James Cleverly vowed London would respond with “unprecedented” steps “to punish this aggression.”“Those sanctions will be laid today and over forthcoming days to really prevent Russia from funding this invasion,” he told the BBC.“The sanctions package that will be put in response to this is already actually having an effect,” Cleverly added, noting record falls Thursday on the Russian stock market and a slump in the ruble’s value.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Ukraine begins evacuating Uman, site of annual Hasidic pilgrimage-United Hatzalah representative predicts city will be targeted due to nearby weapons depots; Israel estimates around 200 families reside there-By TOI staff-FEB 24,22-Today, 6:59 pm
As fighting raged across Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian authorities ordered the evacuation of civilians from the city of Uman, an official at an Israeli first responder organization said Thursday.“The Uman municipality has begun evacuating hundreds of families from the city, the danger is very great — there are many weapons depots in the area and the explosions are intense,” Shlomi Elisha, the deputy chief of the Ukraine division of United Hatzalah, told Army Radio.Uman normally sees some 30,000 visitors, most of them from Israel, visit the gravesite of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov for the Rosh Hashanah holiday.On Thursday, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid repeated his call for Israelis to leave Ukraine by land.The Foreign Ministry estimates that there are around 8,000 Israeli citizens still in the country, including 200 families in Uman. A number of Arab Israeli students also returned to Ukraine this week in order to take exams at their university in Kharkiv.Israel has called on citizens to evacuate through western border crossings. It has stationed representatives at border crossings into Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania in order to assist Israelis leaving Ukraine. Representatives are also being sent to a Moldova crossing.“Our representatives are ready to receive you,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett added on Thursday afternoon.Israel is currently operating under the assessment that there will be 5 million refugees from Ukraine amid the conflict, The Times of Israel has learned.
Explainer-How Putin distorts WWII, Holocaust to justify invasion of Ukraine-Seeking not to jeopardize security ties, Israel has appeared reluctant to challenge Kremlin’s narrative, despite sacred memory of 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis-By Tia Goldenberg-FEB 24,22-Today, 7:38 pm
AP — Vladimir Putin told the world in the lead-up to Thursday’s attacks on Ukraine that his operation aims to “denazify” Ukraine, a country with a Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust and who heads a Western-backed, democratically elected government.The Holocaust, World War II and Nazism have been important tools for Putin in his bid to legitimize Russia’s moves in Ukraine, but historians see their use as disinformation and a cynical ploy to further the Russian leader’s aims.Israel has proceeded cautiously, seeking not to jeopardize its security ties with the Kremlin, despite what it considers the sacred memory of the 6 million Jews who were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.Here’s a closer look at how the ghosts of the past are shaping today’s conflict:-The war the defines Russia-World War II, in which the Soviet Union lost an estimated 27 million people, is a linchpin of Russia’s national identity. In today’s Russia, officials bristle at any questioning of the USSR’s role.Some historians say this has been coupled with an attempt by Russia at retooling certain historical truths from the war. They say Russia has tried to magnify the Soviet role in defeating the Nazis while playing down any collaboration by Soviet citizens in the persecution of Jews.On Ukraine, Russia has tried to link the country to Nazism, particularly those who have led it since a pro-Russian leadership was toppled in 2014.This goes back to 1941 when Ukraine, at the time part of the Soviet Union, was occupied by Nazi Germany. Some Ukrainian nationalists welcomed the Nazi occupiers, in part as a way to challenge their Soviet opponents, according to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial. Historians say that, like in other countries, there was also collaboration.Some of Ukraine’s politicians since 2014 have sought to glorify nationalist fighters from the era, focusing on their opposition to Soviet rule rather than their collaboration and documented crimes against Jews, as well as Poles living in Ukraine.But making the leap from that to claiming Ukraine’s current government is a Nazi state does not reflect the reality of its politics, including the landslide election of a Jewish president and the aim of many Ukrainians to strengthen the country’s democracy, reduce corruption and move closer to the West.“In terms of all of the sort of constituent parts of Nazism, none of that is in play in Ukraine. Territorial ambitions. State-sponsored terrorism. Rampant antisemitism. Bigotry. A dictatorship. None of those are in play. So this is just total fiction,” said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, a history professor at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.What’s more, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish and has said that three of his grandfather’s brothers were killed by German occupiers while his grandfather survived the war. That hasn’t stopped Russian officials from comparing Zelensky to Jews who were forced to collaborate with the Nazis during the Holocaust.-Holocaust distortion-Putin’s attempts to stretch history for political motives is part of a trend seen in other countries as well. Most prominently is Poland, where authorities are advancing a nationalist narrative at odds with mainstream scholarship, including through a 2018 law that regulates Holocaust speech.The legislation sought to fight back against claims that Poland, a victim of Nazi Germany, bore responsibility for the Holocaust. The law angered Israel, where many felt it was an attempt to whitewash the fact that some Poles did kill Jews during the German occupation during World War II. Yad Vashem also came out against the legislation.Havi Dreifuss, a historian at Tel Aviv University and Yad Vashem, said the world was now dealing with both Holocaust denial and Holocaust distortion, where countries or institutions were bringing forth their own interpretations of history that were damaging to the commemoration of the Holocaust.“Whoever deals with the period of the Holocaust must first and foremost be committed to the complex reality that occurred then and not with wars over memory that exist today,” she said.Israeli interests-The Holocaust is central to Israel’s national identity. The country comes to a two-minute standstill on its Holocaust remembrance day. Schoolchildren, trade groups and soldiers make regular trips to Yad Vashem’s museum. Stories of the last cohort of Holocaust survivors constantly make the news.Israel has butted heads with certain countries, like Poland, over the memory of the Holocaust. But Israel has appeared more reticent to challenge Putin and his narrative, according to some observers, because of its current security interests. Israel relies on coordination with Russia to allow it to strike targets in Syria, which it says are often weapons caches destined for Israel’s enemies.Israel came under fire from historians in 2020 after a speech by Putin and a separate video presentation at a meeting of world leaders in Jerusalem to commemorate the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, which they said skewed toward his narrative and away from the historical facts.Israel was conspicuously muted in its criticism of Russia in the lead-up to the attacks on Ukraine. Commentator Raviv Drucker wrote in the daily Haaretz that Israel was “on the wrong side of history” with its response, which initially sought to support Ukraine while not rattling Russia. On Thursday, Israel condemned Russia’s attacks as “a grave violation of the international order.”Vera Michlin-Shapir, a former official at Israel’s National Security Council and the author of “Fluid Russia,” a book about the country’s national identity, said that Israel’s regional security concerns were of greater interest than challenging Russia on its narrative.“Russia can provide weapons systems to our worst enemies and therefore Israel is proceeding very cautiously — you could say too cautiously — because there is an issue here that is at the heart of Israel’s security,” she said.
US official: Russia seeking to ‘decapitate’ Ukrainian gov’t, install new regime-Senior official says invasion’s initial phase is focused on key cities, with Pentagon expecting the Russians to soon move on the capital Kyiv-By AFP-FEB 24,22-Today, 7:27 pm
WASHINGTON — The Russian invasion of Ukraine intends to remove the country’s government and install new leadership allied to Moscow, a senior US defense official said Thursday.The Russian military opened its attack with around 100 ballistic missile launches mainly targeting military infrastructure facilities, as well as sorties by 75 heavy and medium bombers, the official said.The initial phase is focused on key cities, and the Pentagon expects the Russians to move on the capital Kyiv, according to the official, speaking on grounds of anonymity.“They have every intention of basically decapitating the government and installing their own means of governance,” the official said.The official said that Russian troops had crossed the border on the ground, but gave no estimate on numbers.“We haven’t seen a conventional move like this, nation-state to nation-state, since World War II, certainly nothing on this size and scope and scale,” the official said.So far, however, the Russians have not entered western Ukraine, and there have been “no indications” of an amphibious assault in the south from the Black Sea, the official said.There were no estimates of the damages to Ukraine’s military.“We have seen indications that they are resisting and fighting back,” the official said.
Zelensky says 'new iron curtain' cutting off Russia-Ukraine troops battle invading Russian army in Kyiv outskirts-Russia’s military takes control of airfield and nearby cargo airport; 68 killed since invasion launched; overnight curfew declared in capital-By Agencies-FEB 24,22-Today, 5:47 pmUpdated at 6:18 pm
Russian and Ukrainian forces battled for control of an airbase on the northern outskirts of Kyiv on Thursday, as the capital’s mayor declared an overnight curfew-Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said Russian troops had captured the site. “Enemy paratroopers have been blocked in Gostomel — our troops have been given the order to destroy them,” he said in a video address.The Gostomel airfield, which is alongside the Antonov airport, is immediately on the northern edge of Kyiv, and the fighting there was the closest that Russian forces had got to the capital on the first day of their invasion.Meanwhile, Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko announced an overnight curfew in Ukraine’s capital as the country battled to repel the Russian invasion.Klitschko said the curfew would last from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. local time and that public transport would stop working during that period.Metro stations would remain open throughout to serve as bomb shelters, he said.Alexander Kovtonenko, a 30-year-old civilian living nearby, said that two fighter jets had fired missiles at Ukrainian ground units as the assault got underway at the airfield.“Then there was shooting, it lasted three hours,” he told AFP. “Then three more jets flew in and they started shooting again.”Smoke was rising from the scene and social media images appeared to show an assault by helicopter-borne troops. CNN showed footage of Russian troops at the airport and a reporter said he had spoken to them.Breaking: @mchancecnn with Russian forces at the Antonov airport about 15 miles outside of Kyiv. "These troops you can see over here, they are Russian airborne forces. They have taken this airport" pic.twitter.com/SnvmwQ1GeA — Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) February 24, 2022-Shortly before, low-flying helicopters were seen over the capital from the north.Fighting also raged in Chernobyl near the decommissioned nuclear facility, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.“Russian occupying forces are trying to take over the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Our soldiers are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 does not happen again,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter, referring to the date of the disaster.Earlier, Ukrainian border guards had confirmed that Russian ground forces equipped with tanks had also crossed south over the Belarus-Ukraine border into the Kyiv administrative region, headed towards the capital.Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine at dawn, killing dozens and forcing hundreds to flee for their lives in the pro-Western neighbor.Zelensky said Russia’s invasion had severed Moscow from the rest of the international community. “What do we hear today? It’s not just rocket explosions, combat and the roar of aircraft. This is the sound of a new iron curtain lowering and closing Russia off from the civilized world,” he said.Russian airstrikes hit military facilities across the country and ground forces moved in from the north, south, and east, triggering condemnation from Western leaders and warnings of massive sanctionWeeks of intense diplomacy failed to deter Putin, who massed over 150,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders in what the West said was the biggest military build-up in Europe since the Second World War.“I have decided to proceed with a special military operation,” Putin said in a television announcement in the early hours of Thursday.Shortly afterward, the first bombardments were heard in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and several other cities, according to AFP correspondents.At least 68 people were killed, including both soldiers and civilians, according to an AFP tally from various Ukrainian official sources.In the deadliest single strike reported by the authorities, 18 people were killed at a military base near Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odessa.Ukraine’s border guards said Russian forces had reached the region around the capital, Kyiv.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said a “full-scale invasion” was underway.Zelensky declared martial law and said Russia was attacking his country’s “military infrastructur” but urged citizens not to panic and vowed victory.He accused Russia of acting like “Nazi Germany,” saying it had attacked in a “cowardly and suicidal way.”Ukrainian forces said they had killed “around 50 Russian occupiers” while repulsing an attack on a town on the frontline with Moscow-backed rebels, a toll that could not be immediately confirmed by AFP.‘Sounds of bombing’ Kyiv’s main international airport was hit in the first bombing of the city since World War II and air raid sirens sounded over the capital at the break of dawn.“I woke up because of the sounds of bombing. I packed a bag and tried to escape,” Maria Kashkoska told AFP, as she sheltered inside the Kyiv metro station.In the eastern Ukrainian town of Chuguiv, a son wept over the body of his father among the wreckage of a missile strike in a residential district.“I told him to leave,” the man sobbed repeatedly, next to the twisted ruins of a car.Kuleba said the worst-case scenario was playing out.“This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now,” he said.Within a few hours of Putin’s speech, Russia’s defense ministry said it had neutralized Ukrainian military airbases and its air defense systems.Ukraine said Russian tanks and heavy equipment crossed the border in several northern regions in the east, as well as from the Kremlin-annexed peninsula of Crimea in the south.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the operation would last as long as necessary, saying there were “goals that need to be achieved.”“Ideally, Ukraine needs to be liberated and cleansed of Nazis,” he told reporters, repeating unfounded claims made by the Kremlin.‘Unprovoked and unjustified’The fighting roiled global financial markets, with stocks plunging and oil prices soaring past $100.European wheat prices also hit a record high on expectations of lower supplies as Ukraine and Russia are two of the world’s biggest producers.In his televised address, Putin justified the assault by claiming the government was overseeing a “genocide” in the east of the countrY.The Kremlin earlier said the leaders of two separatist territories in eastern Ukraine had asked Moscow for military help against Kyiv after Putin recognized their independence on Monday.A conflict between the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics and government forces has dragged on since 2014, killing more than 14,000 people.US President Joe Biden spoke with Zelensky after the Russian assault began to vow US “support” and “assistance.”He condemned the “unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces,” and vowed Russia would be held accountable.Biden was due to join a virtual meeting of G7 leaders — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the US — on Thursday, likely to result in more sanctions against Russia.In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Russia faced “unprecedented isolation” and would be hit with the “harshest sanctions” the European Union has ever imposed.NATO said it would also hold a virtual summit and activate “defense plans” for allied countries.But NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said: “We don’t have any plans to send NATO troops into Ukraine.”The Russian invasion also rattled eastern NATO members once dominated by Moscow during the Cold War.Poland called for urgent NATO consultations and said it was preparing for a large influx of refugees, while Lithuania imposed a national state of emergency.-Drop NATO ambitions-Ukraine has around 200,000 military personnel, and could boost that with up to 250,000 reservists.Moscow’s total forces are much larger — around a million active-duty personnel — and have been modernized and re-armed in recent years.But Ukraine has received advanced anti-tank weapons and some drones from NATO members. More have been promised as the allies try to deter a Russian attack or at least make it costly.Russia has long demanded that Ukraine be forbidden from ever joining the NATO alliance and that US troops pull out from Eastern Europe.Putin this week set out a number of stringent conditions if the West wanted to de-escalate the crisis, saying Ukraine should drop its NATO ambition and become neutral.“Putin’s aim is to end the existence of Ukraine as it was yesterday,” said Tatyana Stanovaya, founder of the political consultancy R.Politik Center and a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center.“It is possible that the east of Ukraine will come under Russian control,” she said, adding: “I cannot see anything that would stop Russia now.”Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Ukraine’s Jews hunker down as long-feared Russian invasion becomes deadly reality-An already precarious existence for many of the country’s impoverished Jews has now become even worse-By Cnaan Liphshiz-FEB 24,22-Today, 5:58 pm
JTA — On Wednesday, Rabbi Shlomo Baksht and his team were still looking into moving the 250 children of the three orphanages they run in Ukraine westward, away from the Russian border.It was a last resort meant to get the children out of the southern port city of Odessa and the path of an impending Russian invasion and into Lviv, a city close to the border with Poland.But by the time the Russian troops actually crossed the border early Thursday morning, the plan already appeared futile. Explosions were reported from Kharkiv in the East to Odessa in the south and even the Volyn area near Lviv in the western portion of the country. The scale of the invasion appeared to offer no escape.“We’re not going to move children from one place being bombed to another place that’s being bombed, that makes no sense at all,” Baksht, an Israel-born Chabad rabbi who has been living in Ukraine since 1994, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We’re going to hunker down.”Baksht’s account of the past 24 hours underlines the helplessness and confusion that many Ukrainians are feeling as their impoverished country comes under assault by one of the world’s foremost superpowers.For members of Ukraine’s sizable Jewish minority of at least 50,000 people, this development carries special complications. Many have family and friends who have emigrated in recent years, leaving them in relative isolation. They also have unique fears rooted in the tragic 20th-century history of their communities.Baksht said some of the children in his care had woken overnight to the unfamiliar thud of artillery rounds exploding in the distance. They are also experiencing anxiety that Baksht and his colleagues are seeking to ease.“We explained that there was a war but that they are not being targeted, which I believe is the truth,” Baksht said. Some were soothed by this, he said, “but others not really and the fear stayed in their eyes.”Baksht said he felt confident that he was telling the children the truth because he didn’t think that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted “to cause civilian casualties or even bother with the major cities.”At least in the early hours of the invasion, Baksht’s analysis seemed to be holding up, if tenuously. While explosions were reported across all of Ukraine, Russian troops appeared not to be on the ground inside Kharkiv, a city close to the Russian border, or other cities.The scope and goals of the Russian military intervention in Ukraine, in which Ukrainian leaders said dozens of people had died, are still unclear. But Putin in a short media appearance Thursday gave no assurances as to its limitations, using language that seemed to imply sweeping action.Russia’s military action on Ukrainian soil it meant to “protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide… for the last eight years,” Putin said in what was widely understood as a reference to ethnic Russians, who make up a large minority of Ukraine’s population.“And for this we will strive for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine,” he said.The incursion is the culmination of a slow escalation that began in November as Russia began amassing troops along its border with Ukraine, allegedly out of concern due to Ukraine’s relationship with the Western-led NATO bloc.During that time, many Ukrainian Jews felt torn between their desire to stay put in connection with their patriotic sentiment toward Ukraine, and an inclination to leave for safety in Israel under its Law of Return for Jews and their relatives or elsewhere — a course of action unavailable to most non-Jewish Ukrainians.To many of them, this tension introduced thoughts about their families’ experiences during the Holocaust — the darkest chapter in Ukrainian Jewry’s generally bloody and tragic history.It made Rabbi Alexander Dukhovny, the 71-year-old leader of the Reform movement in Ukraine, think about his mother, a Holocaust survivor. “Her relatives, who all perished, stayed even though they had a chance to flee, preferring to stay with their ancestors’ property,” Dukhovny told JTA in January.The next month, Vlodymyr Zeev Vaksman, a Jewish father in Odessa, said he was simultaneously making plans to leave with his family and to stay put, depending on the circumstances.“I put off making any big purchases. I want to buy weapons,” Vaksman, 40, told JTA on Feb. 14. But he said he was also collecting documents for his entire family so they could leave for Israel quickly.Attempts to reach Dukhovny and Vaksman on Thursday were not immediately successful as millions of Ukrainians were left unable to access cellular services and the internet amid the shelling of infrastructure facilities and a rolling cyber attack by Russia.Elderly Jews and people with Jewish roots, of which there are tens of thousands in Ukraine, are likely to be among the among the worst-affected segments of the country’s population by the isolation and anxiety caused by the Russian onslaught, according to Amos Lev-Ran, a senior employee of the former-Soviet-Union division of the US-based American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee charity, or JDC, which is a major provider of care to needy Jews in Ukraine.“They tend to lack a network of people around them, because of people who died,” Lev-Ran said. He noted that the size of Ukraine’s current Jewish population is a mere fraction of what it used to be before the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the territory that it now Ukraine saw hundreds of thousands of Jews leave for Israel.Hesed, the name of JDC’s agency in charge of caring for needy, mostly elderly Jews, has about 37,000 recipients, or clients, in Ukraine.The problem of isolation, now exacerbated by the anxiety and communication interruptions induced by the Russian assault, had already worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still raging in Ukraine, Lev-Ran said. It prevented many elderly clients from leaving their homes for weeks.One of them was Tamara, a 76-year-old retired teacher from Odessa who now relies on a monthly pension of $86 since the death of her husband two years ago. A volunteer with the JDC’s hotline for relieving the loneliness of clients during the pandemic, in recent weeks she also heard from Ukrainian Jews who were anxious about a possible conflict with Russia, Lev-Ran said.Sending the already-weakened national currency of Ukraine, the Hryvnia, into further decline, the conflict has eroded the limited buying power of needy Jews like Tamara, Lev-Ran said.This in turn has led to JDC stepping up its aid, adding $4.4 million in aid spending since November.”As things worsen, those needs are becoming more pressing,” he said. “Millions more will be required to continue care and address emerging needs like displacement and psycho-social care.”
