“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow.”
Lamentations 1:12
In the night of 15 June 2026, missiles fell on Kyiv. Nine people were killed. Hundreds of thousands were woken by the sound of death. Each life taken was made in the image of God. Each believer among the dead was a temple of the Holy Spirit — more sacred than any building, more irreplaceable than any cathedral.
Buildings also burned. The Monastery of the Caves — the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a place of unbroken prayer since 1051 — was set on fire. Its Assumption Cathedral burned. The Oleksandr Dovzhenko film studio was incinerated. Nearly 800 religious buildings across Ukraine have been destroyed or damaged since the invasion began. These are not military targets. They are struck to erase a people — their identity, their memory, their right to exist.
The Lavra will be rebuilt. The nine will not come back.
The European Evangelical Alliance speaks today as one body, one voice, bound together by one Lord:
We condemn the killing of civilians and the terror being unleashed upon Ukraine. We mourn with those who mourn. We stand with the Church under fire. And we cry out to the God who dwells in His people — who is not deaf to the blood that cries from the ground.
We have heard it in a pastor’s own words. On 2 June, two weeks before the Lavra burned, a Russian missile struck twenty metres from New Life Church in Kyiv — an evangelical congregation that has spent four years feeding the hungry, caring for refugees, and sending chaplains to the front. Pastor Anatoly Kaluzhny arrived in the early morning darkness, walked through the rubble — no windows, no doors, everything blown apart — and looked toward the sanctuary.
“I also saw God’s mercy: our worship centre and sanctuary, though significantly damaged, remained standing.”
Pastor Anatoly Kaluzhny, New Life Church, Kyiv
By morning, the congregation was already on site. Praying. Clearing rubble. Beginning again. The Spirit who dwells in them had not left. This is the Church in Ukraine — and it will not be extinguished.
“The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.”
Psalm 9:9
PRAY WITH US
✦ For the wounded and dying and for those who grieve. For every family shattered in the night.
✦ For the living temples — believers in Christ — that the Spirit sustain them in what no stone building could endure.
✦ For the monks and priests whose cathedral now lies open to the sky.
✦ For the many congregations and pastors that lost buildings, properties, lives.
✦ For the Ukrainian people — that they do not lose hope, for God has not abandoned them.
✦ For the leaders of nations — that they find the courage this moment demands.
✦ For the Russian people — that the lies be broken and the hearts turn.
✦ For swift justice and a peace that does not betray the innocent.
ACT WITH US
✦ Contact your elected representatives and urge stronger international accountability measures for Russia’s violations of international humanitarian law.
✦ Stand in practical solidarity with Ukrainian Christians through prayer partnerships, support of verified humanitarian organisations, and advocacy.
✦ Dedicate time in your Sunday gathering this week to prayer for Ukraine — for the living, for the dead, for justice and peace.
✦ Share this call widely so that the voice of the Church across Europe rises as one.
The Church in Europe will not look away. We will pray. We will speak. We will stand.
Until every weapon is laid down. Until every refugee comes home. Until the living temples of God are no longer under fire.
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Romans 12:21
For further information, please contact:
Rev. Jan Wessels and Rev. Connie Duarte
Co-General Secretaries of the European Evangelical Alliance
Email:
Phone: +31 616754574
