The IRF report found that “the scale of destruction of evangelical church prayer houses is immense.” It tallied at least 170 damaged evangelical sites—including 75 Pentecostal churches, 49 Baptist churches, 24 Seventh-day Adventist churches, and 22 “other” evangelical churches—comprising a full third of the total, even though evangelicals comprise less than 5 percent of Ukraine’s population.
Among Orthodox Christians, who comprise about 80 percent, at least 143 damaged buildings belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), long affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), while 34 belong to the newer and smaller independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). (The UOC’s own tally numbers 300 churches damaged by shelling, including 75 “destroyed.”)
The IRF also tallied damage at 94 Jehovah’s Witness, 29 Catholic, 12 Jewish, 8 Muslim, and 4 Mormon religious sites. The institute expects the pace of destruction to soon increase in eastern and southern Ukraine amid ongoing hostilities.
The IRF report documents targeted shelling, missile attacks, vandalism, and looting of religious buildings as well as the torture and killing of religious leaders and believers of many faiths. In many cases, members of destroyed churches also found that Russian forces burned all of their Ukrainian-language Bibles, books, and tracts.
During his speech, Vasin stated that Russian authorities often target clergy and ordinary believers for speaking Ukrainian, exhibiting Ukrainian identity, or belonging to a different denomination than the Moscow Patriarchate. …
“In their entirety, Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine may indicate the existence of a special genocidal intent aimed at destroying the Ukrainian people, which is a distinct crime under international humanitarian law,” Vasin said. …
Please pray these prayer points from Intercessors for Ukraine:
• We pray that the thirst for knowledge of God will appear in people’s hearts. So that Ukraine becomes a place of God’s power and God’s action.
• Let there be a prayer for the purification of our country as a whole, as well as each individual. Let there be positive changes in the political, economic and spiritual system.
• We pray that the foundations of social moral principles based on Christian values will be preserved in our country. So that our country is not exposed to outside influence regarding the promotion of the political ideas of the socio-political LGBT movement.
• In the center of our prayers, as usual, are our soldiers, who are opposing the enemy at different areas of the front. We bless them, we pray for God’s protection and God’s timely help.
• We pray for Ukrainian families – especially those who are now separated by war. We believe that the time will come when they will reunite. And we ask our Heavenly Father to support and guide us in this time of trials.
• We bless the owners of medium and small businesses who work in very difficult conditions and economically support the country. Despite the difficulties and challenges, we pray for the development of their business, may new doors open before them and new opportunities appear.
• We pray for those people who are looking for their relatives who have disappeared – military or civilian. About providing them with state assistance in this.
• Deprivation of the enemy’s power in the information war, the obviousness of false propaganda to justify their criminal actions.
The Lord does not resist the promise, as some consider it resistance, but is patient with you, because he does not want anyone to perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9).
(Excerpt from Christianity Today. Photo Credit: Canva)