According to Russia’s Sputnik news service, the Rating Group conducted a poll last fall in Ukraine showing that the share of Ukrainian citizens nostalgic for the Soviet past is higher in the country’s south, pro-Russian east and center at 40 percent. The poll showed just 18 percent of those living in the western regions regret the dissolution of the once-mighty USSR.

In tandem, the poll also showed that the majority of supporters of Ukraine’s integration with the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) were not sentimental about the Soviet era, while the overwhelming majority of those who advocate rapprochement with the Eurasian Customs Union being organized by Russia were nostalgic about Soviet times. The survey polled 2,000 people between September 16 and September 22. These conflicting feelings are not unique to Ukraine, but can be encountered in other regions of the CIS as well. Our prayer as always is that Bible-preaching churches will be free to worship and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost. Please intercede continually in prayer for the doors to remain open for ministry.