Between 800,000 and one million evangelical Christians live in Ukraine. But they do not only represent a prominent religious community there, but also in the USA, where an estimated 80 million people identify with evangelicalism. Now the Washington Post is reporting that Kiev is trying to strengthen the influence of Ukrainian evangelicals on their American brothers and sisters in faith. The goal: to secure US support for Ukraine. Source here.
In the 2020 US election, around 76 percent of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump. At the same time, there are strong voices in the Republican Party in particular that question support for Ukraine beyond the presidential election in November. If Trump wins, Kyiv could lose its most important ally.
Pavlo Unguryan is a Ukrainian MP and evangelical Christian. He confirmed to the Washington Post that there is “quiet and unofficial diplomacy” from the church. A few months ago, this helped to reduce resistance among US Republicans to a new aid package, which was then finally approved.
Unguryan and others continue to try to organize informal meetings between Ukrainian and American evangelicals. They speak to local publications and attend church services. It is also about making Ukraine known as a place of freedom for evangelical Christians – a place that is threatened by Russia.
Mike Pence, US Vice President under Trump, and Mike Johnson, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, both sent video messages to their evangelical brothers and sisters in Ukraine this year.
The most important news of the day:
- The government in Moscow is threatening the USA with consequences if the green light is given for the use of long-range weapons against targets in Russia. In that case, his country will react appropriately, government spokesman Dmitri Peskov announced on Wednesday in Moscow, without giving any details. More here
- Moscow’s military says it has launched a counter-offensive in the western Russian region of Kursk to expel Ukrainian troops that have infiltrated there. “The Ukrainian armed forces have been expelled from almost ten settlements,” wrote the commander of the Chechen special forces unit Akhmat, Major General Apti Alaudinov, on his Telegram channel. More here
- Despite the war in Ukraine, the European Union still imports almost a fifth of its natural gas from Russia. Compared to last year, imports even increased again, as shown by an energy report published by the EU Commission in Brussels on Wednesday. More in the live blog
- Before the fourth summit of the so-called Crimean Platform, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy inaugurated a memorial to the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people from the Crimean peninsula in 1944. “Crimea is not just a territory. It is part of our soul, the earth on which our people live in peace and harmony with their culture, their language and their traditions,” the head of state stressed in a speech to domestic and foreign guests.
- According to Governor Andrei Chibis, there has been an attack by enemy drones in the northern Russian region of Murmansk. He announced on Telegram that “all three drones” had been shot down.
The Kremlin assumes that Ukraine will be allowed to use long-range weapons from the US and Great Britain against Russian territory. “Most likely, all these decisions have already been made”Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian agencies. - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is calling on his diplomats to more vigorously advocate for the interests of the country attacked by Russia. The new Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha should restructure Ukrainian diplomacy “so that we and our partners can respond much more actively to challenges.”
