Russian writer Leo Tolstoy wrote the massive fiction titled War and Peace, considered one of the greatest of all love stories. It portrays how protagonists Natasha, Prince Andrei, and others suffered through the great Napoleonic Wars as the famed emperor attacked the Russian motherland. In a sense, Tolstoy seemed to explain in microcosm life on a planet that is in a constant state of war, but always seeking peace.
The Word of God tells us that this is the condition of fallen humanity since Eden. We cry “peace, peace, when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14 and Jeremiah 8:11, with a similar thought also found in Ezekiel 13:16 and Micah 3:5).
That we are still in the throes of war that destroys earthly peace is proven hourly in our news feeds. Ironically, one appropriate example involves the writer of War and Peace in an indirect way.
Pyotr Tolstoy, deputy chairman of the State Duma and great-great-grandson of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, has called for massed bombing of Ukrainian cities to break the resistance of the people living in them and force a surrender, the news outlet 24 Kanal reported.
Russia denies striking civilians and claims after each attack that it hit military targets, even as its missiles land on homes, hospitals, power plants, and food depots. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said Tolstoy’s words should be grounds for an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, calling them a Russian official’s demand for war crimes.
What Tolstoy has urged in public, Russian forces have done for more than 12 years while denying it.
The presenter proposed emptying the cities.
On the state talk show Vremya Pokazhet, which Tolstoy hosts, he was reminded that more than 20 million people live in Ukraine and asked what would become of them if the country were turned to scorched earth. He proposed warning residents a day before strikes so they could flee their homes.
“You think we are calling for cruelty? We are calling for demoralizing the population so thoroughly that it comes out to meet our troops with its little paws up,” Tolstoy said.
Then he named the reason.
In the end, Tolstoy described what Ukraine means for Russia’s plans.
“[Ukraine] is the kind of territory that will allow us to export our energy resources to Europe by the short route,” he said. (“A senior Russian official said out loud what Russia’s missiles do every night,” 24 Kanal, RR News August 29, 2026)
It becomes more obvious with each passing day that Russia is building toward war. Whether such war can be contained to Putin’s need to conquer Ukraine is questionable. Because he is losing the ability to act as the strong-man leader in not having yet defeated the smaller foe, the question is: Might the thought to instigate a wider war in order to prove himself be the “evil thought” Ezekiel the prophet referred to in the Gog-Magog prophecy?
War is inevitable, and peace is not possible in this post-Eden fallen world. James the apostle says the following about this matter.
From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. (James 4:1–2)
The fallen nature of humans precludes asking the God of Heaven for anything because they want what is in their own will, not what is in God’s will. And when they do ask, they show that they aren’t serious, or that they don’t believe in the God of Heaven—because they omit the Holy Name of the only Person to whom God the Father will respond in answering prayer.
An example of this, I believe, is a long, eloquent, prayer read by President Franklin Roosevelt as D Day approached. Like I say, his prayer was long, eloquent, and given with great oratorical skill. Its egregious flaw was that he ended with only the word “Amen.”—no mention of Jesus Christ whatsoever. To any Christian who truly knows about prayer, this was a serious omission on Roosevelt’s part. Thankfully, God did see to it that the assaulting forces prevailed on that day, but not, I’m convinced, because of Roosevelt’s prayer on that occasion.
Jesus instructed the following:
And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:13)
When we hear public officials pray, even if they indicate that it’s a Christian prayer, they seldom end with the name of Jesus, as Jesus instructs. They therefore show that they refuse to choose to serve and obey Jesus or God the Father. They, again, want to do what is right in their own eyes, or their own will. And it is a collective will that serves Satan, not God, in this fallen, worldly system of governance.
It is an all-important matter to consider, as Joshua commanded when issuing Heaven’s instructions to God’s chosen people of Israel:
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:15)
Within such obedience as Joshua upheld is the only peace to be found. For it is the peace found only belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, who promised the following to those who serve Him:
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14: 27)
So we must choose this day whom we will serve.
Again, if you don’t know how to begin serving, here is how:
That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)