Betrayed by a nation, grateful to the church
He didn’t criticize President Donald Trump, who said that Ukraine started the war and called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a dictator without elections.”
He didn’t lament the countless lives lost on the battlefields of his homeland — including his brother, Dima, whose military unit went missing in action more than a year ago.
Instead, Sergey Shupishov marked the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion by sending a message to Christians in the U.S. — a message of thanks.
In Irpin, Ukraine, stacks of burned-out cars, destroyed during the Russian invasion, have become a memorial.
“Throughout these three difficult years, you have been with us, supporting us through constant prayers, sincere care and financial assistance,” said Shupishov, minister for a Church of Christ in Irpin, just north of the capital, Kyiv. The city’s bombed-out cultural center and stacked chassis of burned cars are reminders of how close the enemy came.
“Your dedication and sacrifice have been a testimony to God’s love and mercy,” Shupishov told his American brothers and sisters. “You showed us Christ in your actions and proved that God’s family has no borders. We are grateful to you for not leaving us in the darkest times, for standing by our side in our struggle and for sharing the burden of war with us.”
Sergey Shupishov, left, with his mother and his brother, Dima.
An ocean away, Zelenskyy met with Trump in Washington to discuss a deal that would grant the U.S. partial access to Ukraine’s minerals to recoup the cost of American aid to Ukraine. Although Trump recently walked back his description of Zelenskyy as a dictator, the Oval Office meeting between the two leaders quickly became contentious, leading to Zelenskyy’s early exit.
Days earlier, at the Lincoln Memorial, about 2,000 gathered for a rally organized by United Help Ukraine just before the war’s grim milestone.
Jeff Abrams, center, stands with a group of Ukrainian Catholic clergy during a pro-Ukrainian rally in Washington. “I’m a bit underdressed,” Abrams joked.
Jeff Abrams, founder of church-supported nonprofit Rescue Ukraine, made a return trip to the U.S. capital to take part alongside Orthodox priests and representatives of multiple religious groups.
Abrams, who recently stepped down from the pulpit of the Tuscumbia Church of Christ in Alabama to work full time for Rescue Ukraine, earlier led a group of American and Ukrainian Christians in a late-November demonstration at the Washington Monument.
“Not since the days of the Roman Emperors has the Lord’s church endured hardships as severe as those now afflicting Christians across Ukraine,” Abrams said. “Our brethren have been killed, wounded, lost homes, lost church buildings, lost jobs and lost life savings. But they have not lost their faith!
Jeff Abrams holds up a teddy bear representing the children of Ukraine during a rally outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
“We weren’t around during Nero’s assault on the church,” Abrams added, “but we are here during (Russian president Vladimir) Putin’s assault, and there is much we can and should do in support of those under siege.”
But days later, in New York, the U.S. joined with Russia in opposing a United Nations resolution condemning Moscow’s actions against Ukraine and supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Instead, the US drafted and voted for a resolution in the UN Security Council that called for the end of the war without criticizing Putin.
Those actions, combined with Trump’s remarks, have hurt Ukrainians, including church members, Marina Noyes said.
Marina Noyes speaks about the war in Ukraine to a Wednesday night Bible class at the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City in 2022.
“I know the people in Ukraine feel betrayed,” said Noyes, who helped to launch the Vinograder Church of Christ in Kyiv more than two decades ago with her husband, Jim. “Mainly, the feeling is that we are betrayed by allies.”
Her husband added, “I don’t think we can depend on the (U.S.) president for anything, so we depend on the Lord.”
Marina, a Ukrainian, and Jim, a 90-year-old American, fled Ukraine about 10 days after missiles began to rain on Kyiv on Feb. 24, 2022. They returned to Kyiv last April to work with the Vinograder church, which has served refugees from eastern Ukraine since pro-Russian separatists seized territory there in 2014. They spoke to The Christian Chronicle from the New Mexico Christian Children’s Home in Portales, where they are spending the winter months.
Jim Noyes continues to teach a Wednesday night Bible class for the church through Zoom. One member — Alexander, a soldier in Ukraine’s military — joined them from the frontlines when he could. Alexander recently sustained a wound to his arm in combat, but has not yet been demobilized, Marina Noyes said.
Inna Kuzmenko, a Ukrainian from Kharkiv who has relocated to Ivano-Frankivsk since the war began, stands next to a field of flags in downtown Kyiv commemorating lives lost during the conflict.
Their most recent Wednesday night class turned into a prayer meeting, she said. The Christians on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean prayed for the forthcoming negotiations — and for President Trump. They prayed for leaders of Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. to use common sense, to seek after justice and peace.
She finds comfort in God’s Word — especially in passages like Proverbs 24:24-25: “Whoever says to the guilty, ‘You are innocent,’ will be cursed by peoples and denounced by nations. But it will go well with those who convict the guilty, and rich blessing will come on them.”
Jim Noyes, center, speaks with refugees from eastern Ukraine in Kyiv during a Christian Chronicle interview in 2015.
Despite the ongoing attacks and Ukraine’s uncertain future, the Noyeses plan to return to Kyiv in April.
As for the war, Jim Noyes said, “It will stop when the Lord stops it, and I think this is part of the Lord’s plan.”
A Ukrainian minister prays during a retreat in the battle-damaged city of Irpin in 2024.
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