During Moscow’s invasion in 2014, Oleksandr Pavenko, pastor of Transfiguration Church in Slovyansk, Ukraine, lost two of his sons—both of them also pastors. Kremlin-backed separatists stormed his church and abducted his sons and two church deacons, then tortured and killed the four…
Russian intelligence targets major Orthodox Christian leader as ‘Antichrist in a Cassock’
“Antichrist in a Cassock,” “Antichrist of Constantinople” and “Devil Incarnate” were among the terms Russia’s foreign intelligence service used to attack the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Bartholomew I, accusing him of meddling in Ukraine and trying to push…
Faith communities called to help rescue abducted Ukrainian children
People and institutions of faith are needed in the effort to rescue Ukrainian children forcibly taken by invading Russian forces from their homes and families, child advocates say. “Religious groups need to understand their power and to know the significant…
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy meets with Pope Leo XIV. Both propose the Vatican as site for peace talks
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday and thanked him for the Vatican’s efforts to help return children taken by Russia. Both he and Leo suggested the Vatican could host peace talks to end the war.
Ukraine strips Orthodox leader of citizenship, alleging links to Moscow
Ukrainian authorities moved Wednesday (July 2) to strip Metropolitan Onufriy, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, of his Ukrainian citizenship, citing alleged ties between Onufriy himself, as well as the church he leads, with Moscow.
Zelenskyy asks for Pope Leo XIV’s help in bringing Ukrainian children home from Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to Pope Leo XIV, asking the new pope for help in bringing home children deported from Ukraine to Russia.
‘A Faith Under Siege’ Documents Russia’s Persecution Of Christians In Ukraine
Christian faith threatens Russian President Vladimir Putin because it is out of his control. As such, his war on Ukraine has centered on the systematic persecution of Christians, their families and their churches.
Authoritarian rule is ‘common denominator’ in religious persecution, USCIRF says
Authoritarian rule is the “common denominator” in the worsening of religious persecution around the world, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in its 2025 annual report. Last year, totalitarian regimes widened the direct oppression of minority faiths in…
Why a Democracy Advocate in Putin’s Russia Didn’t Fear Death
He lives to trouble Vladimir Putin, the authoritarian strongman of Russia who may have had the advocate for democracy killed a little more than a year ago and who definitely had him poisoned before that.
Putin’s asset
Stories matter. Narratives rule the day in this era of social media and the 24-hour news cycle. Here’s a narrative that often gets lost in the daily breaking news. It must have started in November 2013, when the future president’s…
Ukrainian Evangelicals Wait for the End
Maia Mikhaluk feels as if she hasn’t slept for three years. Not really. Not well.
7 lies Trump is telling about Ukraine
In an unparalleled abandonment of decades of American foreign policy, President Donald Trump has sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin against Ukraine. Trump says, “Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into…