5 ways to pray for Christians in Ukraine and Russia today

As war rages in Ukraine many are unsure how to respond and what to pray.

The conflict is complicated and will no doubt mean challenges for citizens—and believers—in Ukraine, Russia and across the region, particularly in places where Russia maintains significant influence.

That’s because Russia has its own issues with persecution against Christians.

Russia has appeared on Open Doors’ World Watch List (most recently on the 2020 list) in the past and remains on the Persecution Watch List of countries just outside of the top 50. Most of the worst persecution in Russia stems from localized pressure and violence against believers in Muslim-majority regions. Christians in regions like Chechnya, Dagestan experience pressure from community and local leaders who seek to ensure dominance of Islam.

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But a series of laws were instituted in 2016 across the country and have been used to prosecute groups active in evangelization. While these laws have primarily been used to persecute religions like Jehovah’s Witness and Scientology, some Protestants—including evangelical and Pentecostal groups—have also come under fire.

We’ve already seen some of these 2016 laws come into play in parts of Ukraine governed by separatist groups supported by Russia. The U.S. Committee on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) found that, “in Russian-occupied Crimea, the occupation authorities continued to enforce Russia’s repressive laws and policies on religion, which has resulted in the prosecution of peaceful religious activity and bans on groups that were legal in Crimea under Ukrainian law.” In fact, USCIRF even recommended that Russia be placed on the State Department’s list of “Countries of Particular Concern.”

Russia’s support of breakaway regions is also troubling for Christians in Ukraine. Two of the parts of Ukraine that have declared themselves independent, Luhansk People’s Republic and Donestk People’s Republic, have imposed rules requiring religious organizations to register. Complying with the rule has extremely difficult for many Protestant churches. For instance, a December 2019 list of 195 registered religious organizations by the Luhansk authorities showed that no permission had been granted to any Protestant community.

"The Church did not forget what does it mean to be persecuted, and I think that we will rearrange, reorganize and still do what we always do, still preach the gospel.”

In June last year, three Protestant churches were banned by authorities in the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic and others had their buildings confiscated. In August, books by Charles Spurgeon and Billy Graham were placed on a list of banned “extremist” literature by a court in the Luhansk People’s Republic.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is primarily in the eastern half of the country—and the churches in the western part are preparing themselves, the president of the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary, Yarsolav “Slavik” Pyzh, told Christianity Today. “Churches already agreed,” he said. “Those that are on the western part of Ukraine … told our brothers and sisters in other parts of Ukraine [that] if something happens, we will open our homes and our churches to you.”