From: The Gospel Coalition by SARAH EEKHOFF ZYLSTRA • ALEKSANDER SAŠKO NEZAMUTDINOV
When the Russian army first came over Ukraine’s eastern border in 2022, about 3.5 million people fled west to Poland. Many came through Kraków, where Aleksander Saško Nezamutdinov is a Ukrainian missionary and church planter.
His 40-member congregation, Christ the Savior Presbyterian Church, worked hard to provide transportation, housing, food, and clothing to the refugees. Then, after the initial rush died down, they saw another thing the Ukrainians needed: books.
“People started looking for resources,” Nezamutdinov said. “But materials in the Ukrainian language were scarce.”
The biggest reason for that was the Soviet Union. During most of the 20th century, the Russian-language government severely restricted the printing of anything in Ukrainian. Books or magazines written by Protestant Christians almost never made the cut.
“[That’s] because Protestants often have connections with other friends and family in the West,” Nezamutdinov. “But also because Protestants are taught to think, which makes them harder to control.”
Voice of Ukraine 