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LVIV, UKRAINE – MAY 03: Fire and smoke are seen following explosions after a Russian missile strike on May 3, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on the social media service Telegram that multiple power substations had been damaged by missile strikes, injuring at least two people, and some parts of the city are experiencing power outages. (Photo by Leon Neal\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
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At dawn on October 5, Russian fighter jets launched<\/a> a wave of Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles toward western Ukraine. Explosions shook Lviv, the country\u2019s most Catholic city<\/a>, as more than a hundred drones and missiles struck targets from Kyiv to the Polish border. <\/p>\n The BBC reported<\/a> that among the victims were four members of one family, including a 15-year-old girl, killed when a missile struck their home in the village of Lapaivka, near Lviv. President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack as another act of \u201caerial terror,\u201d urging Ukraine\u2019s allies to accelerate deliveries of air defense systems. <\/p>\n Following the strike, Sergey Radchenko, a professor at Johns Hopkins University\u2019s School of Advanced International Studies, wrote<\/a> on X: \u201cThe message to Ukraine is clear: \u2018Submit to the Czar, or this will continue indefinitely.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n A Symbolic Strike on Ukraine\u2019s Catholic Heart<\/p>\n According to Benjamin Maracek, a social studies teacher and volunteer English instructor at Balakun, these rotational strikes are part of Russia\u2019s evolving campaign to cripple Ukraine\u2019s defense industry. \u201cThese rotational strikes are Russia\u2019s attempts to hit regional energy infrastructure and what they believe are Ukraine\u2019s defense production or storage centers,\u201d says Maracek. \u201cThey hit Sparrow Industrial Park for the same reason they hit Retro Mall in Kyiv or Epicenter in Kharkiv \u2013 huge warehouses that could conceivably be UAV production or storage facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n Maracek emphasized that the choice of Lviv is not only strategic but symbolic. He said U.S. politicians such as Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, should pay attention to the plight of Lviv, Ukraine\u2019s most Catholic city. Vance converted<\/a> to Catholicism in 2019 and was baptized at Cincinnati\u2019s St. Gertrude Priory by a Dominican friar; he has credited Dominican priests with helping guide his faith journey.<\/p>\n WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 28: U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance speaks during the 20th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on February 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. During his remarks Vance spoke about his journey to becoming Catholic and how his faith has influenced his political career. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cThe Dominican order first arrived in Lviv in the 13th century and had a strong presence until Stalin\u2019s persecution after World War II. The KGB-led Moscow Patriarchate still views the Greek Catholic Church as Western influence \u2013 it\u2019s the same mindset that led Stalin to abolish the Church at the Lviv Sobor in 1946,\u201d Maracek said. <\/p>\n Alexander Motyl, a political science professor at Rutgers University, notes that Lviv\u2019s identity has long embodied defiance to Russian domination. \u201cLviv is also a symbol of Ukrainian nationalism, resistance, and ultimately of Bandera,\u201d Motyl said. \u201cRussia first banned the Uniate Church in the 1830s or 1840s, and then again in 1948 or 1949. The Uniates were beholden to the Pope, not Russia, and were closely associated with Ukrainian nationalism.\u201d<\/p>\n For journalist JP Lindsay, Russia\u2019s recent attack carries an even deeper message. \u201cSuch a massive strike on Lviv, just 40 miles from Poland and NATO, is a clear signal to Europe from Russia: \u2018This could easily be you,\u2019\u201d says Lindsay. \u201cWhile trying to cripple Lviv as a supply hub, Russia hopes to scare European nations into keeping weapons for themselves rather than arming Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n Lviv, often described as Ukraine\u2019s cultural soul, is also its most actively religious city, where, as Lindsay noted, \u201con a Sunday morning, even during an air raid, churches are packed, and priests chant the creed in Latin as the walls shake.\u201d He continued, \u201cThis is what the media have missed \u2013 Lviv is not Orthodox, but Greek Catholic, in union with the Pope but eastern in ritual. Every virtue conservatives say the West has lost \u2013 faith, family, community \u2013 thrives here.\u201d<\/p>\n Maracek added that Russia\u2019s hostility toward Ukraine\u2019s diverse Christian communities reveals a broader pattern of repression. \u201cLike the torture and execution of Christians in occupied territories, attacks like these demonstrate the intolerance of the Russian state,\u201d he said. \u201cSince 2014, Ukrainian Protestants have also been targeted \u2013 churches destroyed, pastors arrested, entire congregations driven underground. Faith is dead in Russia; churches are empty. But in western Ukraine, they are full.\u201d<\/p>\n TOPSHOT – This aerial photograph shows the Bohorodytskyy Skyt Svyatohirskoyi Lavry, the village of Bohorodychne, Donetsk region, on February 21, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Bohorodychne is a village in Donetsk region that came under heavy attack by Russian forces in June 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On August 17, 2022 the Russian forces captured the village. The Armed Forces of Ukraine announced on September 12, 2022 that they took back the control over the village. A few resident came back to restore their destroyed houses and live in the village. (Photo by Ihor TKACHOV \/ AFP) (Photo by IHOR TKACHOV\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n Lindsay argued that these attacks are part of Russia\u2019s broader psychological warfare against Europe. \u201cRussia is terrified of the prospect of American support for Ukraine, so it\u2019s working to frighten Europeans into submission,\u201d he said. \u201cThe closer Ukraine gets to victory, the nastier Russia will lash out, targeting its most beautiful, holy, and free cities like Lviv.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that Western observers have failed to grasp the cultural stakes. \u201cEven if you don\u2019t want to arm Ukraine\u2019s Christians, at least realize they are everything you want the West to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Moscow\u2019s War Against Ukraine\u2019s Christians<\/p>\n Yet the Kremlin\u2019s war on faith stretches far beyond Catholicism. Since Russia\u2019s first invasion in 2014, Ukrainian Protestants have been among the earliest victims of repression. \u201cLike the torture and execution of Christians in occupied territories, attacks like these demonstrate the intolerance of the Russian state,\u201d said Maracek. These acts of repression are not random.<\/p>\n \u201cRussia\u2019s attacks on religious minorities have been a common tactic used by the Russian government to consolidate centralized control over religious groups,\u201d says Eddie Priymak, an analyst who focuses on religion in Ukraine. Those deemed difficult to control are targeted and neutralized \u2013 either by shutting down their churches or forcing submission to Russian authorities.\u201d <\/p>\n The Kremlin\u2019s religious war has deep roots. During World War II, Joseph Stalin revived the Russian Orthodox Church not as an act of faith but as a tool of control, a domesticated arm of the secret police meant to legitimize Soviet authority. According to Maracek, what began as a KGB-managed institution has evolved under Vladimir Putin into a pillar of state ideology. Today, the Moscow Patriarchate operates less as a church than as a political agency, advancing the Kremlin\u2019s agenda and denouncing Catholics, Protestants, and independent Orthodox believers as threats to national unity. Its zeal to eliminate dissenting faiths mirrors the same absolutism found in extremist movements that seek to purge all rivals to their creed.<\/p>\n The human toll of Russia\u2019s attacks on Lviv has been devastating. In September 2024, a similar Russian strike killed Daria Bazylevych, a student at the Ukrainian Catholic University, along with her mother and two sisters. Daria had written<\/a> that her first year at university was \u201can awakening for everyone because of the war. With the war came consciousness, an understanding of what was really happening, and values and principles changed. But most importantly, I realized how important it is to know the history of your country.\u201d<\/p>\n Her words now serve as a haunting reminder of what Russia\u2019s missiles aim to destroy \u2013 not just lives and buildings, but the intellectual and moral foundations of Ukraine\u2019s next generation.<\/p>\n According to The Wall Street Journal, Russia has sought<\/a> to \u201cerase Evangelical churches from occupied Ukraine.\u201d The Russian Orthodox Church, re-established by Joseph Stalin in 1943 as a tool of state control, remains deeply entwined with the FSB, serving as both a spiritual and political arm of the Kremlin. <\/p>\n This photograph taken on September 18, 2023 shows the Korniakta Tower (C) and Dominican Church, now the Greek Catholic Church of the Holy Eucharist (R) in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. The UN’s cultural organisation on September 15, 2023 placed World Heritage Sites in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Lviv on its “in danger” list, saying they are at risk from the war sparked by Russia’s invasion. (Photo by YURIY DYACHYSHYN \/ AFP) (Photo by YURIY DYACHYSHYN\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n From 1946 to 1989, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was forced underground by Soviet authorities, and its leader, Josyf Slipyi<\/a>, spent 18 years in prison before being deported in 1963. Under Vladimir Putin, this alliance has only deepened<\/a>, with the Church providing moral cover for the invasion while denouncing non-Orthodox Christians as agents of Western influence.<\/p>\n Since the full-scale invasion in 2022, this campaign has accelerated. Research from the Center for Strategic and International Studies found<\/a> that Russian forces have damaged or destroyed at least 660 churches and other religious structures, including 206 Protestant ones. In Luhansk Oblast under Russian occupation, not a single Protestant church remains open<\/a> for worship. In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, all Greek Catholic churches have been banned. Evangelical pastors have been abducted, tortured, or killed, while hundreds of congregations have been forced<\/a> underground.<\/p>\n A False Narrative in the West<\/p>\n Tucker Carlson has repeatedly<\/a> pushed the false claim that Ukraine persecutes Christians \u2013 a talking point amplified by Russian state media to justify its invasion. The reality is the opposite. Russia is waging war on Ukraine\u2019s Christian communities. Its forces have bombed churches, executed Protestant pastors, and outlawed the Greek Catholic Church in occupied regions. <\/p>\n A 2025 report by Mission Eurasia documented<\/a> at least 47 Ukrainian Christian leaders of different denominations killed as a result of Russia\u2019s full-scale aggression from 2022 to 2024. The report detailed torture by Russian troops, imprisonment in inhumane conditions, and targeted shootings of clergy and civilians. The report added that Evangelical Christians are subjected to threats, surveillance, defamation and \u201cbrutal violence.\u201d By portraying Ukraine as hostile to Christianity, Carlson and others echo Kremlin propaganda, spreading lies aimed at eroding Western support for Kyiv.<\/p>\n A new documentary, A Faith Under Siege, reveals<\/a> how Russia\u2019s invasion has become a war on faith itself. The film documents how, in occupied regions, evangelical Christians face torture, imprisonment, and the destruction of their churches. Co-producer Colby Barrett, a former U.S. Marine, said Russian forces have \u201cshelled, looted, or destroyed more than 650 churches.\u201d <\/p>\n In some areas, occupation authorities have forced congregations to register with Russian officials, turning prayer gatherings into acts of quiet defiance. Despite the risk, believers continue to meet in basements and private homes to worship. \u201cThey have not given up their faith,\u201d said Steven Moore, founder of the Ukraine Freedom Project and the film\u2019s co-producer. \u201cThe Russians have not been able to stamp it out.\u201d<\/p>\n Ukrainian American Mikhail Pavenko, originally from Donetsk Oblast and a volunteer Protestant chaplain in Ukraine since 2015, told me the country\u2019s Protestant churches have become \u201ca ray of hope and light\u201d amid the devastation. Members of Pavenko\u2019s family were among the first to be killed<\/a> by pro-Russian militias in Sloviansk in 2014 for their religious beliefs.<\/p>\n SLAVIANSK, UKRAINE \u00e2 JULY 30: Portraits of four prominent eastern Ukraine Protestants, two deacons and two sons of the priest, killed by armed pro-Russian rebels in early June, are decked with flowers for mourning in the foyer of the Christian Church of Transfiguration in Slaviansk, Ukraine, on July 30, 2014. When Slaviansk was under control of pro-Russia separatists, the four men \u00e2\u00c2\u00a0from left, Deacon Vladimir Velichko, Albert Pavenko, Ruvim Pavenko, and Deacon Victor Brodarsky \u00e2 were taken away by masked armed men from the church on June 8, were killed the next day and at least two were buried in a mass grave of 14 bodies near a memorial to the Ukrainian civil war of a century ago in Slaviansk. Protestant denominations have been targeted by rebels who are often close adherents of the Orthodox Church. (Photo by Scott Peterson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Getty Images<\/p>\n Pavenko frequently travels to Washington, D.C., to advocate for Ukraine and its Christian community. \u201cSadly, Russian propaganda has been effective at shaping the narrative within the GOP,\u201d he said, \u201cbut even that is starting to change for the better. Advocacy must go on. Losing Ukraine to Russia would do no good for the West, and I think American politicians understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n Maracek pointed out that \u201cthe KGB-led Moscow Patriarchate has always hated the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church because it sees it as Western influence.\u201d He noted that in 1946, Stalin\u2019s regime staged the infamous Lviv Sobor, formally abolishing the Greek Catholic Church and forcing its followers into the Russian Orthodox fold. \u201cWhat\u2019s happening now is a continuation of that same project, an attempt to erase every independent form of Christianity that can\u2019t be controlled by the state.\u201d<\/p>\n