BJU will host a faculty forum to discuss last week’s Russian invasion of Ukraine tonight from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in Stratton Hall.

​After months of increasing tensions, Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 from the north, south and east. Since then, Russia has shelled population centers but has so far failed to capture Kyiv, the capital.

​President Joe Biden authorized economic sanctions against Russia in response to the invasion but has promised not to deploy U.S. troops to Ukraine.

​Gary Weier, BJU’s provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, will moderate the forum. “This conflict is relevant to us because we need to understand our times, we need to care about human suffering and the plight of fellow believers and we need to know how to pray,” he said.

​Weier selected faculty members with a broad range of experience to provide students a clear picture of the conflict. “I believe it’s important to understand this conflict from several key perspectives—an international relations perspective, a historical perspective, a gospel perspective,” he said. “Undergirding all of this needs to be a biblical worldview.”

The panelists will be Jonathan Arnett, a political science faculty member who has worked in the Pentagon and served as the director of research at West Point’s Modern War Institute; Mark Sidwell, a history faculty member; Mark Vowels, the director of the Center for GlobalOpportunities and Renton Rathbun, the director of the Center for Biblical Worldview.

Arnett and Sidwell will provide military and historical context for the event, while Vowels and Rathbun will talk about the impact on Ukrainian believers and how Christians should respond.

​Panelists will make uninterrupted statements on the Russia-Ukraine conflict followed by a period of time for discussion. At the end of the forum, students will have a chance to submit questions for the panelists to answer.

​Although BJU currently has no students who live in Ukraine, at least four alumni live in the country.