Despite everything there’s still hope in Ukraine – here’s why

With no end in sight, and over 600 days after Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the number of gospel opportunities brings some joy amidst the ongoing war in Ukraine, says Igor Bandura, the Vice President of the Ukrainian Baptist Union.

In an interview for en, conducted while he was participating at a Slavic Gospel Association conference, Igor discussed how the Baptist Union have adapted to the war, and the unique opportunities it has given them to share the gospel. He described how his role as Vice President has changed since Russia’s invasion in 2022:

‘As Vice President, I have many duties inside the union. My main duty was to build connections with other Baptist unions and missionary organisations and to help prepare Ukrainians to go abroad as missionaries.

‘All this ministry continues, but the war has brought great change. My role now is to speak on behalf of Ukraine internationally and organise humanitarian help from different sources, to continue their ministry to the people in their villages and cities.’

Igor said the Baptist Union has lost 300 churches in occupied territory, that 200 pastors have left and that 61 churches have been destroyed during the war. However, he bullishly revealed that, despite most churches having lost about half of their members, they are still full every Sunday, and they have never had so many opportunities to share the gospel:

‘This is one of the very few joys during this ministry time. We have experienced that the war cannot stop the preaching of the gospel. This is what the people really need when they have lost everything. People would like to know what God has in mind about Ukraine and them personally.

‘Of course there are people who are angry with God. They feel they cannot trust God anymore because He did not protect us from the war, but most people that we have access to are very open to the gospel. And, as I mentioned before, we see people coming to Christ and new churches planted, and we see that hope is prevailing, because we learned to trust God beyond anyone else.’

Igor emphasised that prayerful Christians are the most powerful ally Ukraine has. He said: ‘From the very first day of the war, we were greatly encouraged by the fact we knew that millions of Christians started to pray all around the world. The second-largest army in the world was against us, but a bigger army of faithful Christians was for us.

‘Prayer is the most powerful weapon given to us by God. Our army needs Western support and provision with ammunition, our economy needs money to run, but most of all we ask all our brothers and sisters to continue to pray to God and intercede for Ukrainian Christians and the nation.’