On the day I spoke with Pastor Anatoly, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin had just announced to the world that he would “recognize” two large swaths of Ukraine, known as the Donbas region, that border Russia. Within hours of our interview, the shooting started in earnest. Now Russian soldiers are at Kyiv’s door. Not only is Putin an existential threat, but the pastor also says the dictator will take over the churches as he has done in Russia.
“I think Putin tried to find a way to escalate because … he doesn’t accept Ukraine as a country. And Ukraine must be destroyed completely, he told me. “[Putin believes] it must be returned to Russia Federation,” said of his home country. And he said the invasion was a “now or never” moment for Putin.
Pastor Anatoly Kaluzhny is staying in Kyiv to shepherd his flock who are understandably terrified. He knows he’s a target. He believes he could be taken prisoner. He fears the same fate for the Ukrainian church. His organization has planted “thousands” of churches in Ukraine and Russia.
“Ukraine has a very strong evangelical movement,” he told me on the phone when Facebook Messenger and Facebook’s WhatsApp wouldn’t work. “And during the last 30 years when we get independent, we plant many thousand churches in Ukraine. And also we plant thousands of churches in Russia. And our spiritual influence to Russia has been huge, big, and now we understand.” The bombs and shooting are real, but he now understands this war goes “much more deeper.” I asked if Putin’s “now or never” moment was due to Western weakness. He said, “it is a spiritual battle.”
Related: The Battle for Kyiv Is Underway
Pastor Anatoly says Putin’s secret police, the FSB, has taken over the Russian churches in a way that has become so familiar to Americans who observe how billionaire oligarchs take over elections, news outlets, and other essential cultural institutions. He floods them with rubles from his foundation.
“You know in Soviet time, KGB controlled the church,” Anatoly told me. “Now Russia, they have like the KGB. They call it FSB. They control each church. You can’t communicate with any Western organization. You cannot get any support and money from the West. They control everything.” If you control the church, you control thought and free expression. “They make special law couple years ago and that law was very bad for the church. And what they did I know for sure. Putin foundation give for Baptist Union one million rubles just to get them to be quiet. The same money he gave to Pentecostal Union.”
He fears the same will happen in Ukraine. Churches all over the world, especially in the United States, have supported Ukrainian Christians. If Putin takes over, one can imagine a law passed by a puppet duma to do what he’s done to the Russian churches.
It would be hard to imagine such an unanswered invasion occurring during the Trump years. As former White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany pointed out on Fox News on Tuesday after a Biden Administration deputy national security adviser said “this is the beginning of the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine” that Putin has “been doing this since 2014 [when he invaded the Crimean Peninsula].”
“Excuse me,” McEnany fumed. “There were four years when he didn’t do this, going back to 2014. That was when President Donald Trump was in power.”
“The real truth is this,” she continued, “there is no greater supporter of the Democrat Party than Vladimir Putin because he got Crimea on Barack Obama’s watch and now he’s getting exactly what he wants on Joe Biden’s watch.”
Her coup de grace was, “The bottom line is two embassies evacuated in one year of Biden. Two countries gone essentially in one year of Biden. That is all you need to know.”
And now this.
Anatoly said they are surrounded and need help. “Number one we need your prayer … We need help. Not little help, big help. We need protection.” He ended in prayer asking, “we don’t have enough power, but You have enough. You know how to stop Putin. You know how to protect your church. I prayer to fill your people with faith and hope and joy.”
There’s much more to the interview. I encourage you to listen.
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