Family of Adventist Church Member in Ukraine Saved When Invading Russian Troops Turned on Themselves
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- Adventist woman said her son’s family were able to flee Makariv after the Russian troops fired on each other.
- The Guardian reported that Russian troops had run over their own commander with a tank in Makariv. The Guardian also reported that Russian soldiers are refusing to go fight in Ukraine.
- Hundreds of people in Russia are still protesting the invasion, reported the Washington Post.
13 May 2022 | An Adventist church member said that her son’s family was able to escape from Makariv, Ukraine, after invading Russian troops “neutralized themselves by shooting each other,” according to an article on the Ukrainian Union Conference website.
Lyubov Cherepnina, from Berdychiv (about 83 miles/134 km away from Makariv) said her son and his family were surrounded in the village of Makariv, near Kyiv. Russian forces had driven into the village, placed tanks in the woods and said that whoever came out would be shot. CNN reported Makariv sustained significant damage from apparent Russian airstrikes in March 2022.
Her son’s family went down to their basement and stayed there for three days without light and heat. They only turned their phones on a few times to report they were still sitting in their basement.
On a Saturday morning, Cherepnina went to church. While at church, her husband called and said their son’s family had managed to escape.
“At night, for some unknown reason, [the Russian forces] neutralized themselves by shooting each other,” Cherepnina said. “Under the blows of bombs and aircraft, everyone managed to get to safe areas.”
On March 25, 2022, The Guardian reported that mutinous Russian troops had run over their own commander with a tank in Makariv. The same article said a Ukrainian journalist, Roman Tsymbaliuk, had reported in a Facebook post that the incident occurred after the Russian unit had lost “about 50% of their personnel.”
A May 12, 2022, article in The Guardian reported that Russian soldiers are refusing to fight in Ukraine. Moscow initially put about 80% of its main ground combat forces—150,000 men—into the war in February 2022 but logistical problems, poor morale, and an underestimated Ukrainian resistance have done significant damage to that army.
Western officials believe that about one-sixth or maybe one-fifth of Russia’s original invasion force, which comprised an estimated 20 battalion tactical groups, is “no longer combat-effective.” Western countries believe that Russian forces are suffering from increasingly poor morale as they incur heavy losses in the fighting, reported The Guardian.
Several news outlets reported protests broke out across Russia at the start of the Ukraine invasion in February 2022. A month later, even under the threat of punishment, many people in Russia continued to protest the Ukrainian invasion, with 15,000 people detained in more than 100 Russian cities, reported NPR.
Putin critic and Washington Post columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza wrote from jail in April 2022 that hundreds of people who took part in such protests are still imprisoned in police stations and special detention facilities.
“When you are told that no one protests against the war in Russia, don’t believe it,” said Kara-Murza.
(Photo: The village of Makariv has suffered significant damage during the invasion of Ukraine. But an Adventist woman said her son’s family was able to escape the town when the Russian troops turned on each other and began shooting each other. Photo via CNN.)
