WorthyNews: Russia Launches Largest Air Attack

[WorthyNewsBot]

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – War-fatigued residents tried to recover Sunday after Russia fired more than 500 aerial weapons at Ukraine overnight, killing several people in a barrage that Kyiv called “the biggest air attack” of the three-year armed conflict.

Ukraine’s air force said Sunday that Russia “had fired 477 drones and decoys as well as 60 missiles overnight.”

While 475 of these were shot down or lost, the onslaught marked the “most massive airstrike” on the country since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, noted Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for Ukraine’s air force.

The bombing appeared to target several regions far from the frontline, he added, including in western Ukraine. The Russian army said on Sunday its overnight attack hit Ukrainian military-industrial complex sites and oil refineries, and that it had intercepted three Ukrainian drones overnight.

However, at least six people died in the strikes, officials explained. Three were reportedly killed in drone strikes in the Kherson, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Another person was killed in Kostyantynivka, and the body of a 70-year-old woman was found under the rubble of a nine-story building hit by Russian shelling in the Zaporizhzhia region, authorities said.

Critics argued that the scale of the attacks called into question comments made on Friday by Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he said Moscow was ready for a fresh round of direct peace talks in Istanbul.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Sunday that the barrage of bombs showed that Putin had decided to pursue war. “Moscow will not stop as long as it has the capability to launch massive strikes,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.

RUSSIA ATTACKS

In the past week alone, Russia had attacked Ukraine with more than 114 missiles, more than 1,270 drones, and nearly 1,100 glide bombs, he said.

“This war must be brought to an end – pressure on the aggressor is needed, and so is protection,” he stressed. “Ukraine needs to strengthen its air defence – the thing that best protects lives.”

He reiterated Ukraine’s willingness to buy U.S. air defence systems, adding that his country counted on the “leadership, political will, and support of the United States, Europe, and all our partners”.

However, Ukraine’s air force said an F-16 warplane supplied by its western partners had crashed after sustaining damage while shooting down air targets, killing the pilot. “The pilot used all of his onboard weapons and shot down seven air targets. While shooting down the last one, his aircraft was damaged and began to lose altitude,” the air force said on Telegram.

The pilot did not have time to eject, it added. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree to posthumously award the late F-16 pilot, Maksym Ustymenko, the Order of the Gold Star.

Trump also passed on his condolences to the pilot’s family and brothers-in-arms. An investigation has been launched into the circumstances of his death.

Local officials in Ukraine said that among the victims of Russia’s air strikes were two people killed, while at least 12 were injured, including two children.

RAID SIRENES

As air raid sirens rang out across the country, residents in Kyiv took refuge in bomb shelters and metro stations. At the same time, in the city of Drohobych, in the western Lviv region, a large fire broke out at an industrial facility after a drone attack that cut electricity to parts of the city.

Witnesses and regional governors said explosions were heard in Kyiv, Lviv, Poltava, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy, and the Ivano-Frankivsk regions.

Russia’s escalating campaign comes as talks on ending the fighting remain primarily at an impasse. Two recent rounds between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul yielded no progress.

On Sunday, Ukraine’s presidential website said the country had begun the process of withdrawing from the international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines.

A senior Ukrainian lawmaker, Roman Kostenko, said on social media that parliamentary approval was still needed. “This is a step that the reality of war has long demanded,” he said.

“Russia is not a party to this convention and is massively using mines against our military and civilians. We cannot remain tied down in an environment where the enemy has no restrictions.”

In recent months, and to an outcry from anti-mine campaigners, five European countries have announced similar plans to withdraw from the 1997 landmark mine ban treaty, citing concerns about the growing threat of Russia.

The latest developments underscored the cruelty of the war in which more than a million people are believed to have been killed or injured.

The post Russia Launches Largest Air Attack appeared first on Worthy Christian News.

View the full article

[Vine Abider]

Could this be the bear with one of the three ribs in its mouth (Dan 7)?

[Alive]

21 minutes ago, Vine Abider said:

Could this be the bear with one of the three ribs in its mouth (Dan 7)?

In the succession of empires, it seems the bear was Persia.

[Vine Abider]

9 minutes ago, Alive said:

In the succession of empires, it seems the bear was Persia.

Hmm, don't think I'd heard that before.  Lot's of varying interpretations of Dan 7, but traditionally it was held that they were the same ancient empires as the statue in Dan 2.  However, that cannot be the case as the interpretation in Dan 7 says "the four kings WILL rise from the earth," clearly pointing to the future.  (And the fact that this chapter speaks of Christ's 2nd coming, interwoven with the beast.)

So if you see the bear as Prussia, how does that look through the lens of Dan 7:5?

[Alive]

6 minutes ago, Vine Abider said:

Hmm, don't think I'd heard that before.  Lot's of varying interpretations of Dan 7, but traditionally it was held that they were the same ancient empires as the statue in Dan 2.  However, that cannot be the case as the interpretation in Dan 7 says "the four kings WILL rise from the earth," clearly pointing to the future.  (And the fact that this chapter speaks of Christ's 2nd coming, interwoven with the beast.)

So if you see the bear as Prussia, how does that look through the lens of Dan 7:5?

It's been commonly understood forever. Daniel lived in Babylon and into the Medo-Persian empire. Next came Alexander and the Grecian and then the 4th Roman.

Lion, Bear, Leopard and Rome not depicted by an animal probably because it was so much more powerful than those before with no animal as nasty as Rome was.

[Alive]

This from Jamieson, Faust, Brown Commentary--which is typical of every commentary I have read.

 

4. lion — the symbol of strength and courage; chief among the kingdoms, as the lion among the beasts. Nebuchadnezzar is called “the lion” (Jeremiah 4:7). eagle’s wings — denoting a widespread and rapidly acquired (Isaiah 46:11; Jeremiah 4:13; Lamentations 4:19; Habakkuk 1:6) empire (Jeremiah 48:40). plucked — Its ability for widespread conquests passed away under Evil-merodach, etc. [GROTIUS]; rather, during Nebuchadnezzar’s privation of his throne, while deranged. it was lifted up from the earth — that is, from its grovelling bestiality. made stand . . . as a man — So long as Nebuchadnezzar, in haughty pride, relied on his own strength, he forfeited the true dignity of man, and was therefore degraded to be with the beasts. Daniel 4:16: “Let his heart be changed from man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given unto him.” But after he learned by this sore discipline that “the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men” (Daniel 4:35, 36), the change took place in him, “a man’s heart is given to him; instead of his former beast’s heart, he attains man’s true position, namely, to be consciously dependent on God.” Compare Psalms 9:20.

 

5. bear — symbolizing the austere life of the Persians in their mountains, also their cruelty (Isaiah 13:17, 18; Cambyses, Ochus, and other of the Persian princes were notoriously cruel; the Persian laws involved, for one man’s offense, the whole kindred and neighborhood in destruction, Daniel 6:24) and rapacity. “A bear is an all-devouring animal” [ARISTOTLE, 8.5], (Jeremiah 51:48, 56). raised . . . itself on one side — but the Hebrew, “It raised up one dominion.” The Medes, an ancient people, and the Persians, a modern tribe, formed one united sovereignty in contrast to the third and fourth kingdoms, each originally one, afterwards divided. English Version is the result of a slight change of a Hebrew letter. The idea then would be, “It lay on one of its fore feet, and stood on the other”; a figure still to be seen on one of the stones of Babylon [MUNTER, The Religion of Babylonia, 112]; denoting a kingdom that had been at rest, but is now rousing itself for conquest. Media is the lower side, passiveness; Persia, the upper, active element [AUBERLEN]. The three ribs in its mouth are Media, Lydia, and Babylon, brought under the Persian sway. Rather, Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt, not properly parts of its body, but seized by Medo-Persia [SIR ISAAC NEWTON]. Called “ribs” because they strengthened the Medo-Persian empire. “Between its teeth,” as being much grinded by it. devour much flesh — that is, subjugate many nations.

 

6. leopard — smaller than the lion; swift (Habakkuk 1:8); cruel (Isaiah 11:6), the opposite of tame; springing suddenly from its hiding place on its prey (Hosea 13:7); spotted. So Alexander, a small king, of a small kingdom, Macedon, attacked Darius at the head of the vast empire reaching from the Aegean Sea to the Indies. In twelve years he subjugated part of Europe, and all Asia from Illyricum and the Adriatic to the Ganges, not so much fighting as conquering [JEROME]. Hence, whereas Babylon is represented with two wings, Macedon has four, so rapid were its conquests. The various spots denote the various nations incorporated into his empire [BOCHART]; Or Alexander’s own variation in character, at one time mild, at another cruel, now temperate, and now drunken and licentious. four heads — explained in Daniel 8:8, 22; the four kingdoms of the Diadochi or “successors” into which the Macedonian empire was divided at the death of Alexander, namely, Macedon and Greece under Cassander, Thrace and Bithynia under Lysimachus, Egypt under PTOLEMY, and Syria under Seleucus. dominion . . . given to it — by God; not by Alexander’s own might. For how unlikely it was that thirty thousand men should overthrow several hundreds of thousands! JOSEPHUS [Antiquities, 11.6] says that Alexander adored the high priest of Jerusalem, saying that he at Dium in Macedonia had seen a vision of God so habited, inviting him to go to Asia, and promising him success.

 

7. As Daniel lived under the kingdom of the first beast, and therefore needed not to describe it, and as the second and third are described fully in the second part of the book, the chief emphasis falls on the fourth. Also prophecy most dwells on the end, which is the consummation of the preceding series of events. It is in the fourth that the world power manifests fully its God-opposing nature. Whereas the three former kingdoms were designated respectively, as a lion, bear, and leopard, no particular beast is specified as the image of the fourth; for Rome is so terrible as to be not describable by any one, but combines in itself all that we can imagine inexpressibly fierce in all beasts. Hence thrice (Daniel 7:7, 19, 23) it is repeated, that the fourth was “diverse from all” the others. The formula of introduction, “I saw in the night visions,” occurs here, as at Daniel 7:2, and again at Daniel 7:13, thus dividing the whole vision into three parts — the first embracing the three kingdoms, the second the fourth and its overthrow, the third Messiah’s kingdom. The first three together take up a few centuries; the fourth, thousands of years. The whole lower half of the image in the second chapter is given to it. And whereas the other kingdoms consist of only one material, this consists of two, iron and clay (on which much stress is laid, Daniel 2:41-43); the “iron teeth” here allude to one material in the fourth kingdom of the image. ten horns — It is with the crisis, rather than the course, of the fourth kingdom that this seventh chapter is mainly concerned. The ten kings (Daniel 7:24, the “horns” representing power ), that is, kingdoms, into which Rome was divided on its incorporation with the Germanic and Slavonic tribes, and again at the Reformation, are thought by many to be here intended. But the variation of the list of the ten, and their ignoring the eastern half of the empire altogether, and the existence of the Papacy before the breaking up of even the Western empire, instead of being the “little horn” springing up after the other ten, are against this view. The Western Roman empire continued till A.D. 731, and the Eastern, till A.D. 1453. The ten kingdoms, therefore, prefigured by the ten “toes” (Daniel 2:41; compare Revelation 13:1; 17:12), are the ten kingdoms into which Rome shall be found finally divided when Antichrist shall appear [TREGELLES]. These, probably, are prefigured by the number ten being the prevalent one at the chief turning points of Roman history.

 

8. little horn — little at first, but afterwards waxing greater than all others. He must be sought “among them,” namely, the ten horns. The Roman empire did not represent itself as a continuation of Alexander’s; but the Germanic empire calls itself “the holy Roman empire.” Napoleon’s attempted universal monarchy was avowedly Roman: his son was called king of Rome. The czar (Caesar ) also professes to represent the eastern half of the Roman empire. The Roman civilization, church, language, and law are the chief elements in Germanic civilization. But the Romanic element seeks universal empire, while the Germanic seeks individualization. Hence the universal monarchies attempted by the Papacy, Charlemagne, Charles V, and Napoleon have failed, the iron not amalgamating with the clay. In the king symbolized by “the little horn,” the God-opposing,. haughty spirit of the world, represented by the fourth monarchy, finds its intensest development. “The man of sin,” “the son of perdition” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). Antichrist (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3). It is the complete evolution of the evil principle introduced by the fall. three of the first horns plucked up — the exarchate of Ravenna, the kingdom of the Lombards and the state of Rome, which constituted the Pope’s dominions at the first; obtained by Pope Zachary and Stephen II in return for acknowledging the usurper Pepin lawful king of France [NEWTON]. See TREGELLES’ objections, Daniel 7:7, “ten horns,” Note. The “little horn,” in his view, is to be Antichrist rising three and a half years before Christ’s second advent, having first overthrown three of the ten contemporaneous kingdoms, into which the fourth monarchy, under which we live, shall be finally divided. Popery seems to be a fulfilment of the prophecy in many particulars, the Pope claiming to be God on earth and above all earthly dominions; but the spirit of Antichrist prefigured by Popery will probably culminate in ONE individual, to be destroyed by Christ’s coming; He will be the product of the political world powers, whereas Popery which prepares His way, is a Church become worldly. eyes of man — Eyes express intelligence (Ezekiel 1:18); so (Genesis 3:5) the serpent’s promise was, man’s “eyes should be opened,” if he would but rebel against God. Antichrist shall consummate the self-apotheosis, begun at the fall, high intellectual culture, independent of God. The metals representing Babylon and Medo-Persia, gold and silver, are more precious than brass and iron, representing Greece and Rome; but the latter metals are more useful to civilization (Genesis 4:22). The clay, representing the Germanic element, is the most plastic material. Thus there is a progress in culture; but this is not a progress necessarily in man’s truest dignity, namely, union and likeness to God. Nay, it has led him farther from God, to self-reliance and world-love. The beginnings of civilization were among the children of Cain (Genesis 4:17-24; Luke 16:8). Antiochus Epiphanes, the first Antichrist, came from civilized Greece, and loved art. As Hellenic civilization produced the first, so modern civilization under the fourth monarchy will produce the last Antichrist. The “mouth” and “eyes” are those of a man, while the symbol is otherwise brutish that is it will assume man’s true dignity, namely, wear the guise of the kingdom of God (which comes as the “Son of man” from above), while it is really bestial, namely, severed from God. Antichrist promises the same things as Christ, but in an opposite way: a caricature of Christ, offering a regenerated world without the cross. Babylon and Persia in their religion had more reverence for things divine than Greece and Rome in the imperial stages of their history. Nebuchadnezzar’s human heart, given him (Daniel 4:16) on his repentance, contrasts with the human eyes of Antichrist, the pseudo son of man, namely, intellectual culture, while heart and mouth blaspheme God. The deterioration politically corresponds: the first kingdom, an organic unity; the second, divided into Median and Persian; the third branches off into four; the fourth, into ten. The two eastern kingdoms are marked by nobler metals; the two western, by baser; individualization and division appear in the latter, and it is they which produce the two Antichrists.

[Vine Abider]

20 minutes ago, Alive said:

It's been commonly understood forever. Daniel lived in Babylon and into the Medo-Persian empire. Next came Alexander and the Grecian and then the 4th Roman.

Lion, Bear, Leopard and Rome not depicted by an animal probably because it was so much more powerful than those before with no animal as nasty as Rome was.

Yeah, I know - read many of the same things over the years.

So how do you explain the language referring to the great trib (e.g., times, time & half a time), the 2nd coming with the beast being overthrown and the establishment of the kingdom, all as depicted in the interpretation portion of Dan 7 (v 16-27)?  Would this not put the timeframe of that chapter toward the end of the age?

[Alive]

2 minutes ago, Vine Abider said:

Yeah, I know - read many of the same things over the years.

So how do you explain the language referring to the great trib (e.g., times, time & half a time), the 2nd coming with the beast being overthrown and the establishment of the kingdom, all as depicted in the interpretation portion of Dan 7 (v 16-27)?  Would this not put the timeframe of that chapter toward the end of the age?

I was referring to your query about the bear kingdom. You said you  had never heard it before.

Some folks think the Roman Empire somehow reconstituted at the end of the age answers those questions. That being correct, it would put that section toward the end. The bear of Daniel is clearly not Russia...IME.

 

[Vine Abider]

2 minutes ago, Alive said:

I was referring to your query about the bear kingdom. You said you  had never heard it before.

Some folks think the Roman Empire somehow reconstituted at the end of the age answers those questions. That being correct, it would put that section toward the end. The bear of Daniel is clearly not Russia...IME.

 

“And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up and eat your fill of flesh!’"  (Dan 7: 5)

Going through this verse, here are just some interesting observations of mine for your consideration, for what it's worth:

> Looking at the map of Russia, with some imagination, I can see a little resemblance to a bear.  (of course, it's official symbol is a bear)

> "Raised up on one of its sides" - 85% of the population of Russia is on the far western side of the country

> "Three ribs in its mouth" - I've heard some speculate that the Ukraine is the first rib and that Russia will then go after two more of its former territories.

> "eat your fill of flesh" - Russia (and the USSR) has always appeared to me to have a certain paranoia and aggression about it . . . seemingly always looking for a fight.

 

[Alive]

18 minutes ago, Vine Abider said:

“And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up and eat your fill of flesh!’"  (Dan 7: 5)

Going through this verse, here are just some interesting observations of mine for your consideration, for what it's worth:

> Looking at the map of Russia, with some imagination, I can see a little resemblance to a bear.  (of course, it's official symbol is a bear)

> "Raised up on one of its sides" - 85% of the population of Russia is on the far western side of the country

> "Three ribs in its mouth" - I've heard some speculate that the Ukraine is the first rib and that Russia will then go after two more of its former territories.

> "eat your fill of flesh"&quot - Russia (and the USSR) has always appeared to me to have a certain paranoia and aggression about it . . . seemingly always looking for a fight.

 

Thanks for your response, but I can’t consider this seriously.