Ukraine—the heart of the Slavic world and the heart of Mission Eurasia’s vision—is the birthplace of our School Without Walls (SWW) program, which remains our largest and most diverse ministry program. It is also the birthplace of Mission Eurasia’s president Sergey Rakhuba, and formerly the home to our field ministry headquarters. Sadly, the headquarters were destroyed by Russian forces in 2022.

Ukraine has a turbulent history with Russia, namely being exploited as the Soviet Union’s breadbasket and losing millions of lives to forced famine and World War II. Though independent since the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has continued to deal with corruption and manifestations of Russian conquest. In February 2022, Russia launched an all-out invasion into Ukraine after nearly a decade of military occupation in and around Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as annexing Crimea in 2014. More than 21 million Ukrainians have been displaced and face serious food shortages. As of June 2023, almost 25,000 civilian casualties have been reported.

In spite of these hardships, our colleagues are serving on the front lines to meet people’s physical, mental, and spiritual needs. In addition to humanitarian aid that has included more than 350,000 iCare Food Packages, medical assistance, shelter, and trauma counseling, millions of Bibles and portions of Scripture have been distributed, and thousands of children and adults have come to Christ.In 2023, you also continued supporting our thriving School Without Walls (SWW) ministry training for 100 enrolled leaders, who all graduated from the full two-year program. Please pray for the hearts of future students, as well as for staffing for eight new planned SWW training centers. Additionally, please pray that Ukraine persists as a religiously free nation amid pressure against the Moscow-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church and promotion of the native Orthodox Church of Ukraine.