While Russian military operations in Ukraine are proceeding, Mariupol is about to fall, and pressure is high across the east of the country, the flow of gas to Europe is steady and orders are even increasing. The EU countries are engaged in economic warfare against Russian aggression, but they continue to buy gas from Moscow and expose themselves to economic reprisals.

The announcement of the consecration of Russia and Ukraine is news of historical importance, linked both to the apparitions in Ukraine in 1914 and 1987 and to the request made by Our Lady at Fatima. It is also the affirmation of God's power over nations and the whole world, which finally puts God back at the centre of the world's life. But we must not forget that in Fatima Our Lady also asked for penance and reparation, because war is the consequence of our sins.

“They are bombing primarily Mariupol with diabolical force, because it is a Marian city and the devil is trying to destroy it.” One of the two Pauline Fathers, now displaced, told Vatican Radio: “Our escape was miraculous. But we will return to rebuild.”

British historian Tim Stanley and columnist for The Telegraph explains to the Daily Compass why the idea of a post-Soviet Russia being a Christian bulwark against a secularised West has never been true: "Putin tried to restore Russia as it was around 1900". But at the same time it is wrong to think that Ukraine is fighting in the name of democracy: "The truth is they are fighting for their homes, their land and their families."

The war in Ukraine did not break out on 24 February 2022, but on 20 February 2014. First the annexation of Crimea, then the uprising of pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass caused a conflict which has cost thousands of casualties and almost two million refugees. A review of these eight years is essential to understand the reason for the current fighting.

The greatest risk to religious freedom in Ukraine is faced above all by the communities in the republics of Lugansk and Donetsk, recently recognised by the Russian Federation. In Crimea, before the Russian occupation, there were 50 religious organisations operating on the peninsula, while by 2019 their number had already dropped to nine. The Daily Compass interviews Alessandro Monteduro, director of the Italian section of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN)

With the invasion of Ukraine, Putin's Russia has crossed a border that leads it towards a total break with the West, and forces it to be fatally sucked into a Eurasian axis with China from which it has everything to lose in the long run, since it can only play the role of vassal. It is the end of a long season in which the country, after the adjustment following the end of the USSR, has tried to find a balance between inclusion in the globalised economy and maintaining its status as an imperial power, albeit on a smaller scale than in the past.

In a speech on February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised the independence of the separatist republics of Lugansk and Donetsk. At the same time, he also called into question the very existence of Ukraine as an independent and sovereign state. So what is his goal? Given the recent recognition of the Patriarchate of Kiev by the ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew I, is Putin also defending a religious cause, on behalf of the Moscow Patriarchate? The Daily Compass asked Marta Carletti Dell'Asta, researcher at the Christian Russia Foundation in Italy and editor-in-chief of the magazine La Nuova Europa.

In times of tension it is always said that "if you want peace, prepare for war". But it’s not the way; experience shows that those who prepare for war never achieve peace, at most a truce. We must change our attitude and prepare for peace instead. And for Christians, the model is the one explained by Metropolitan Antonij of Suroz.

The EU Court of Justice has rejected the appeal presented by Hungary and Poland. The two Central European countries had asked for the cancellation of the regulation that allows the EU to suspend payments from the European budget to member states where "the rule of law is threatened". It is a further step towards a European super-state.

Despite the Biden administration, 17 American intelligence agencies and the Pentagon consistently raising the alarm, since last December, about an impending Russian invasion of Ukraine, the prospect that Vladimir Putin will really order a takeover of the former Soviet republic is remote if not political fiction.

Although it is not the largest, so far it’s the most conspicuous and loudest of the protests against compulsory vaccination: it is the Freedom Convoy, the travelling protest of Canadian (and supportive US) truck drivers that peacefully invaded Canada and then "besieged" Ottawa, the capital, last weekend. The protest has already been imitated abroad, first of all in Holland and France.