IRPIN, Ukraine (BP) – For Christians in Ukraine, the battle is existential, a spiritual onus to spread the Gospel where they are planted as darkness tries to snuff their witness.
That’s Igor Bandura’s take as the nation enters its fifth year of sustained war against Russia. Bandura is a pastor in Irpin and vice president of international affairs for the All-Ukrainian Union of Associations of Evangelical Christian-Baptists (Ukrainian Baptist Union).
“We do not have choice. If we would stop (fighting), we will stop to exist. We believe it is God’s will for us to be born on this land and to preach the Gospel in this land. We don’t want to become refugees and spread all around the world,” Bandura told Baptist Press fresh from a visit to Washington for Ukrainian Week, coinciding with the International Summit on Religious Freedom. “We believe we should remain there and do what God wants us to do as Christians in Ukraine.”
Bandura is not alone. Christian advocates supporting Ukraine see God’s hand in sustaining the smaller nation against Russia’s behemoth military increasingly targeting Ukraine’s power grid, water supply and faith.
“We have no choice. We will never live under Putin’s regime,” Kyiv resident Anna Shvetsova, chief operating officer of Ukraine Freedom Project, told Baptist Press. “When you talk to soldiers, I didn’t meet a soldier who said let’s stop this war and let’s give up on territories or let’s start negotiations under conditions that are not beneficial for Ukraine. People are ready to fight because we’ve seen this before. We’ve seen Putin’s regime before. We don’t want back.”
At least 54 clergy members had been killed in Russia’s war on Ukraine through Dec. 1, 2025, according to well-respected Mission Eurasia statistics. The Tennessee-based outreach that has provided spiritual and humanitarian aid onsite in Ukraine for three decades, has tracked Russia’s regional aggression from its beginning. In addition to the deaths of 15,000 or more Ukrainian civilians are injuries and displacements, including an estimated 3.7 million internally displaced individuals and 7.8 million refugees, as calculated by the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
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Through January, military casualties include perhaps 325,000 killed in Russia, in addition to more than 800,000 wounded and missing Russian soldiers; and 100,000 to 140,000 deaths among Ukrainian soldiers, with 360,000 to 460,000 wounded and missing, the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported.
Today (Feb. 24) is National Day of Prayer in Ukraine, marking the fourth anniversary of Russia’s current onslaught in an aggression that began in 2014 in Ukraine’s Donbas region. Russia has illegally annexed and aggressively seeks to retain the region in southeastern Ukraine.
“But this war is not just territorial. This is very little about territory there,” Mission Eurasia President Sergey Rakhuba told Baptist Press. “This is more civilizational and spiritual war, and that’s what’s happening now. Ukraine is not just suffering for its territory. Ukraine is suffering for its existence. Ukraine is suffering for its freedom, for freedom of faith, for worship.
“I consider that that’s a pure miracle,” he said of Ukraine’s “backbone” and resilience. “It’s all hope in God. They’re openly, openly praying to God, as a nation.”
Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary, led by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary alumnus Yaroslav “Slavik” Pyzh, has lost one student in active duty in the war, Pyzh said, while dozens more have been wounded. At least five students enrolled are veterans, he said, including amputees who are studying Christian counseling.
Ukrainians, including students, church members and other civilians, are thriving on faith and a sense of purpose, leaders said.
As UBTS students work with volunteers at 26 humanitarian We Care Centers across the nation – supported by the U.S.-based Ukraine Partnership Foundation (UPF) – churches are mobilized in daily prayer meetings at churches during rolling blackouts in a winter that is colder than Ukraine has seen in years.
“I think the only thing that gives you meaning is getting involved with people,” Pyzh told Baptist Press. “And you lose your meaning when you seclude yourself from people. The closer you are to people, the more engaged with people you are, the more meaning you have in your life.”
Civilians are weaving cloths onto large rectangular wire frames, creating miles of camouflage netting for soldiers to use on the frontlines, and creating lanterns that provide both warmth and light for soldiers in cold, dark trenches.
Mission Eurasia, the Ukrainian Baptist Union and the Ukraine Freedom Project are among outreaches not only serving those in need in Ukraine, but also advocating in Washington for administration support for Ukraine. Saving Ukraine means saving the Gospel witness in Europe, advocates maintain.
“Ukraine is not only the breadbasket of Europe, but it is also a Gospel basket for Russia, for all former Soviet Union republics and for Europe,” Bandura said. “Ukraine was the forepost for spreading Christianity, spreading the Gospel, and we would like to remain this Gospel for that part of the world. And in fact, Ukraine, with some other East European countries, is Bible Belt of Europe.
“Our victory would guarantee the success of the Gospel in that part of the world,” Bandura said. “Because you know, Europe is strong financially and economically, but it is very weak spiritually.”
During Ukrainian Week, Mission Eurasia shared with Congressional members updated reports of Russia’s persecution of Christians during the war in Ukraine, documented in the updated “Continued War Against Faith: Religious Genocide in the Occupied Territories of Ukraine, 2022–2025,” and Russia’s persecution of Christians on Russian soil, detailed in Mission Eurasia’s latest report “Faith in the Crossfire: Religious Freedom Under the Kremlin Regime in Russia.
The Ukraine Freedom Project recruited Congressional members to view its frequently updated documentaries on Russian persecution, torture and murder of Christian leaders, including its four-part documentary series “A Faith Under Siege,” now streaming on Angel.com.
Ukraine Freedom Project founder Steven Moore, an American citizen who launched the outreach in the first year of Putin’s full-scale attack, said many Ukrainians want peace, but not on Putin’s terms.
“Polling says that 60-some percent of Ukrainians want peace. That’s absolutely true. They think it’s time to negotiate. But then if you ask them, should we give up territories in Donbass, 70 percent of them say no,” Moore said. “Putin wants to drop the size of the Ukrainian military down to 600,000. Nobody wants to do that. So there’s all these absurd things that Putin’s demanding. And nobody wants to do that. Everybody wants peace. Everybody wants to negotiate. But no one wants to give in to Putin’s absurd demands.”
Critical after four years, advocates urge, is the need for the international Christian community including Southern Baptists to persevere in praying for and tangibly supporting Ukraine. Donations can be given through several outreaches including those sponsored by individual churches, Southern Baptist Send Relief and the UPF.
While the U.S. works to negotiate peace talks that have stalled, advocates express appreciation of and pleas for the continued support of Christians in the U.S.
Ukrainians see no impending end to the war.
“We pray and we expect,” Bandura said. “But because we are people of reality, (we) face reality as it is. We understand unless Russia will be either economically exhausted or military defeated, they will not stop. Doesn’t matter. The rest is just this game they play.”