CHERNIVTSI, Ukraine (BP) – The children of Mykolaiv, Ukraine, were among the first to hear missiles after Russia declared war in 2022. Many now orphaned, they can distinguish missiles just by the sound heard as they pass overhead, a pastor who ministers to them told Baptist Press.
Vyacheslav Nahirniak, pastor of First Baptist Church in Chernivtsi, has hosted 300 children from the Mykolaiv region in a series of summer camps through a partnership with the Mykolaiv regional Department of Education.
“Those were young children who could easily tell by the sound of the missile what kind of missile it was, whether it was a high missile or a javelin or something else,” Nahirniak said. “They have spent time hiding in basements in the villages. That was a great mission for us to minister to those children.”
Children have suffered cruelties of the war between Russian and Ukraine just as adult civilians, including pastors and parents, Nahirniak told Baptist Press. He spoke with BP while visiting the U.S. Feb. 8-11 with a delegation hosted by Mission Eurasia, a Tennessee-based Christian educational and charitable organization operating in Ukraine and 14 other countries.
“There were many instances where those children were in danger of stepping on landmines. The children saw villages shift from control of the Russians back to the Ukrainian control,” he said. “Many of them have lost their parents. There have been instances of rape,” he said, mentioning war brutalities in Mykolaiv, Kherson and other southern regions trampled early in the war.
He referenced “horrible instances” he feared sharing with Baptist Press would strain ethical standards.
“They are not always publicized,” he said. “We did travel to those parts of Ukraine. We met with those families.”
He shared a story from Kherson that occurred during Russia’s occupation.
“The Russians entered a village and they found out that a parent of one of the children was serving in the military,” Nahirniak said. “It was a 2-year-old boy. They cut off his limbs.”
The summer camps have sought to offer hope to the children, offering professional psychological and spiritual aid. Children’s Bibles provided by Mission Eurasia have also been distributed.
“It is horrible at any age to experience violence,” he said. “It is difficult to describe without psychologists who work with them, ministers who work with them. Thank God, many people have been able to recover after three years and return to a normal life.”
The church will host a camp for war widows at the end of February, and has previously held retreats for pastors.
“We hosted a retreat for pastors from the southern region of Ukraine just this past fall,” Nahirniak said. “There was a pastor about 60 years old. He helps the Ukrainian military. He said, ‘I’m not afraid of death. I’m afraid of torture because that torture is widespread.’”
He referenced Mission Eurasia’s latest report “Faith Under Russian Terror: Analysis of the Religious Situation in Ukraine,” which chronicles atrocities against Ukrainian religious leaders blamed on Russia, as well as violations of children’s rights. The war revealed a difficult reality at a time when many considered Russian neighbors their brothers and sisters, he said.
As has been widely reported, a specific tragedy for Ukraine’s children has been their abduction by Russian authorities. An unknown number of children – many of them orphaned in the war – have been taken to Russia and perhaps adopted by Russian families without any consent of next-of-kin or the Ukrainian government.
While numbers vary widely from 6,000 to 400,000, the Ukrainian website Children of War counts 19,546 deported or forcibly displaced children between Feb. 24, 2022 and Feb. 23, 2025, as well as 599 child civilian war deaths and 1,759 wounded children. Additionally, 37,599 children have been found, the site says, based on numbers from the National Police of Ukraine, and 388 have been returned to Ukraine, according to the National Information Bureau. Sixteen children have suffered sexual abuse, the site said, based on numbers from the Office of the Prosecutor General, but the site has the disclaimer that, “It is impossible to establish the exact number of injured children due to active hostilities and the temporary occupation of a part of Ukrainian territory.”
According to the site, Ukraine’s Ministry of Reintegration and the National Information Bureau created Children of War on behalf of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as a publicly accessible portal for “finding children, rescuing them, and liberating them from places of forced displacement or deportation.”
Amid the pain, the church works to offer hope in a Ukraine that made great progress in religious freedom since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Nahirniak said.
“All the work that was being done in Ukraine, the war has actually strengthened and multiplied it,” he said. “Because we as Christians cannot be indifferent to human suffering.”
As the war began, Chernivtsi was flooded with people who needed housing, food and clothing. They traveled thousands of kilometers without any supplies, food or money. Churches in the city became shelters, hosting as many as 2,500 people at a time.
“Most important was to give them hope in a difficult time,” Nahirniak said. “Our mission is to share hope that at this terrible time, when the combat zone is greater than it was during World War II, that God has not abandoned us.
“We have God’s support. We still have the support of our brothers and sisters from the entire world, including America’s churches.”
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