Voice of Ukraine

From: Ira Kapitonova (Day 768):

‭The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold.
Psalm 18:2

I became a Christian when I was an exchange student in America. At the time, I knew little about evangelical Christians, even though there were several religious denominations present in my tiny hometown in Ukraine. Yes, people were cautious of anything new, but I’d say there was curiosity rather than hostility to believers. When I moved to Kyiv, I joined a church and a ministry here, and that’s when I learned about restricted nations and persecutions. I knew there used to be religious persecutions in the Soviet Union, but it was uncommon in the independent Ukraine. Multiple missionaries who served here in the past and keep serving today can attest to that. That’s one of the reasons why it’s heartbreaking to read the new report of the Institute for Religious Freedom (https://irf.in.ua/p/125).

They surveyed religious communities in the occupied territories and recorded seventeen interviews with religious leaders of various denominations about Russian war crimes in Ukraine. They documented numerous cases of seizure of churches by the Russian military to be used as military bases or as cover for their firing positions. The Russian military would seize church buildings to loot them and stop the activities of Ukrainian churches. People keep meeting for worship at their own homes under surveillance and risking personal persecution.

It is not something new. We did hear similar reports from our friends from the areas occupied since 2014, yet this plague spread since 2022. Valentyn Syniy, Rector of the Tavriski Christian Institute (Kherson region), said in an interview that one of their employees was threatened by a Russian officer who said, “Evangelical believers like you should be completely destroyed since you are sectarians and American spies. But simply shooting you will be too easy for you. You need to be buried alive.”

The cruel mockery of this whole thing is that Russia keeps claiming that one of the reasons they fight this war is to defend Christian values. And the sad thing is that many well-meaning Christians in the West believe them.

I will keep waiting for the Lord’s justice to be restored.

Behold, at that time I will deal
with all your oppressors.
And I will save the lame
and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth.
At that time, I will bring you in,
at the time when I gather you together;
for I will make you renowned and praised
among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes
before your eyes,” says the LORD.
Zephaniah 3:19-20