The war has vanished from prominence in American newspapers,  replaced by copious coverage of the Buffalo and Uvalde massacres. A related shift was noticeable at a St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church service this morning (HERE soon) in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a good deal of which was given over to “gun violence in the United States.” There was no acknowledgement of the possibility that a good chunk might be fueled by violence in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Ukraine and elsewhere, of which U.S. war policy has been an indispensable part. Below, links to reports from and about the Ukraine war follow a link to a 2018 version of a litany read in hundreds of Episcopal churches today. — MCM 

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Litany in the Wake of a Mass Shooting, by Bishops United Against Gun Violence, “a group of more than 100 Episcopal bishops working to curtail the epidemic of gun violence in the United States” | God of peace, we remember all those who have died in incidents of mass gun violence in this nation’s public and private spaces. Click HERE for the original November 2018 version, now updated and lengthened to include U.S. mass shootings up to and including the Buffalo and Uvalde massacres.

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Russian troops storm city amid eastern Ukraine bombardments, by Elena Becatoros and Ricardo Mazalan | The Associated Press POKROVSK, Ukraine — Russian and Ukrainian troops engaged in close-quarter combat in an eastern Ukraine city today as Moscow’s soldiers, supported by intense shelling, attempted to gain strategic footholds in the region while facing fierce Ukrainian resistance. Ukrainian regional officials reported that Russian forces were “storming” the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, where the fighting has knocked out power and cellphone services and terrorized civilians who haven’t fled. Sievierodonetsk, a manufacturing center . . . READ MORE . . .

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Ukraine receives missiles, howitzers, Zelensky expects good news on arms supplies. From Reuters. KYIV — Ukraine has started receiving Harpoon anti-ship missiles from Denmark and self-propelled howitzers from the United States, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Saturday. He said the arms would bolster forces fighting Russia’s invasion. “The coastal defence of our country will not only be strengthened by Harpoon missiles – they will be used by trained Ukrainian teams,” Reznikov wrote on his Facebook page. He said Harpoon shore-to-ship missiles would be operated alongside Ukrainian Neptune missiles in the defence of the country’s coast  . . . READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED