Bifocal nation watching

Having received an email earlier today from a colleague in the USA about Ukraine - an email I found quite alarming - I deliberately sat down tonight to watch the news on BBC and then flicked over to see the news on Russia Today. Both were talking about a nation they called Ukraine but they were two very different places it seems. One of those Ukraines has been overrun by terrorists who have ousted the elected president. Hope however is not lost because good citizens in the east and south are maintaining their links with neighbouring Russia and will eventually restore law and order. Some of the terrorists we saw in the pictures were very violent, attacking police and setting fire to public buildings.  In the other Ukraine there has been an invasion by thousands of Russian troops and an illegal referendum is being organised by rebels in the south. The Russian soldiers we saw in the pictures were 'digging in' ready for battle.

These two nations also have different histories. One, it appears has always been a European state with international borders which must remain sacrosanct. The other has a long history of being partly in the Austro-Hungarian empire, partly in the Soviet Union, and more recently a satellite state of Russia with international borders that have been very fluid over the centuries.

Even their religious make up is very different. One has a majority Russian Orthodox Church and a few Catholics in the east (who can be trouble makers). The other has multiple Orthodox Churches, a large Catholic population, Protestants, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and everything else - in fact exactly the eclectic mix you would expect to find in a contemporary European state.

The real problem is that these two nations have co-terminus territory.

God give us understanding - of complex identities, long and difficult histories, interwoven religious communities and a matrix of relationship between the people of these two Ukraines which in the end will be their salvation or their hell.

I am not Ukrainian. My concern tonight is about media reporting that sees exactly what it wants to see (soldiers without insignia must be Russians, an angry citizen holding aloft a lump of wood must be a terrorist) and outsiders who want a simplistic view.  One question asked in the email this morning that started all this was, "Who is to blame - Russia or Ukraine?"  To ask that question is to fail to understand.

God give us wisdom.