Democracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion The evangelical case for U.S. military aid to Ukraine

Contributing columnist|
November 28, 2023 at 6:45 a.m. EST
Ukraine National Guard soldiers fire a recoilless cannon during combat training in the north of Ukraine on Nov. 3. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)
4 min

How many American evangelicals know their faith is being targeted by Russian military forces in Ukraine?

In November last year, a Ukrainian evangelical church leader, Anatoliy Prokopchuk, and his 19-year-old son Oleksandr were abducted by Russian soldiers. Four days later, their bodies were discovered in a forest, with evidence the pair had been tortured and executed. Russian occupying forces closed down the three largest evangelical Protestant churches in Melitopol and shut down churches in Mariupol. In August, Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary President Yaroslav Pyzh estimated that about 400 Ukrainian Baptist congregations had been lost in the war in Ukraine, in part from evacuations and displaced communities, and in part from casualties and destroyed churches.