UKRAINE: The Good News In The War Zone Is… The Good News!

The Russo-Ukrainian war unleashed Hell for untold millions of people, not the least of which was the Christian church… but the story doesn’t end there.

Groups whose chief concern is meeting the needs of the persecuted Church have come back with some harrowing stories about just what sorts of evil Putin has been up to in persecuting any Christians not affiliated with the state-approved Russian Orthodox Church.

Historically, Ukraine is a Christian nation with a large Orthodox population and many other denominations. Not surprisingly, the Russians have targeted Christians. They started persecuting Christians in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea. It was greatly exacerbated by 2022 with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Russians specifically targeted Christians who were not affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church. These included evangelical congregations, Ukrainian Orthodox, Catholics, and members of other denominations. Thousands have fled the Russian-occupied territories since Putin’s invasion. At least 206 churches have been closed, destroyed, or expropriated. Many pastors and priests have been kidnapped, tortured, illegally deported, or murdered by the Russian National Guard and Russian Police. One report states that 29 have been killed.(3)

However, other reports state that at least 39 have disappeared or been murdered. The level of brutality is horrific.(4)
Any religious group that does not support Russia’s political agenda is targeted. Since February 2022, dozens of persecution cases have been documented against Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Protestants, Catholics, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Any pastor or priest who isn’t Russian Orthodox is considered an American spy. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Russia also has engaged in a massive misinformation campaign blaming Ukraine for these acts of persecution.(5)

In an interview on CBN, the leader of a Greek Catholic Church shared that two priests were recently rescued after having been held for 18 months in Russian captivity. They reported horrific stories. After Kyiv was liberated, he visited a mass grave outside of Kyiv. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Russians have killed more than 70 pastors, destroyed more than 600 places of worship, and at least a dozen religious leaders remain in captivity.” — Persecution, March 2025

More detailed lists of the atrocities can be found here.

The Ukrainian government is little better, conducting their own religious purity tests and writing laws about which churches are and are not permissible, with arrests and property seizures coming at religious leaders from both governments.

But, just like the gospel itself, sometimes it takes coming face to face with the bad news before the good news is of any interest at all.

As bad as things have been — and they have been VERY bad — Christans have always held to a promise of God being faithful not only in the good times, but especially in the hard times.

Throughout history, when wave after wave of persecution have swept over the Church, it has only served to either spread the embers so that they can catch fire elsewhere (as they did in the book of Acts), or the hardship itself creates a faithfulness and boldness that is not easily explained away.

In the midst of the horrors of an unspeakable war, we are once again seeing that process in action.

As war continues to devastate Ukraine, a powerful spiritual revival is unfolding amid the ruins, according to Ukrainian evangelist David Karcha, who told a gathering of European church leaders that the Gospel becomes unstoppable in a time of war.

Speaking at the European Congress on Evangelism in Berlin, Germany, on May 29, Karcha described how churches across Ukraine have become beacons of hope, drawing thousands to Christ even as the country endures deep physical and emotional suffering.
[…] “In a time of peace, the Gospel is powerful. But in a time of war, it is unstoppable,” said Karcha in his opening remarks in which he brought greetings from the Evangelical wider Church in Ukraine to the Berlin Congress delegates.

Evangelist David Karcha told delegates at the European Congress on Evangelism in Berlin, Germany, that the church in Ukraine continues to serve people with God’s love.
Evangelist David Karcha told delegates at the European Congress on Evangelism in Berlin, Germany, that the church in Ukraine continues to serve people with God’s love. | Chris Eyte/Christian Daily International
A Church, he said pointedly, and not the buildings “because then they’d not be allowed to suffer.” Instead, the Church greeting the Berlin Congress is one that “cannot be bound” or “darkened with smoke.”

After Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Karcha said Ukrainian Evangelicals faced a critical choice: to fracture and flee, or to remain and share in the suffering of their fellow countrymen. This was “not because we had a plan, not because we felt ready, but because we saw that even the smallest act done in faith becomes a part of something much greater.”
[…] In the last three years, Karcha testified that “hundreds of thousands of people have walked through the doors of Ukrainian churches and encountered the love and care of God.” —Christian Post

Those same hopeful sentiments about the growth of Christ’s kingdom are echoed elsewhere:

During the ”Special military operation” from Russia a spiritual revival has exploded in Ukraine. According to some leaders of the Union of Evangelical Faith there are often more people in the Church services than ever before. Over 50 new Evangelical churches have been planted during the war in Ukraine. — RAULI LEHTONEN

We pray for people in places of turmoil like Ukraine, as we all should.

But if there’s any truth at all to reports of this revival, it should also provoke us to pray for revival in America. Just because there are no drones blasting people to pieces doesn’t mean we aren’t in a fight for the souls of the country here as well.