Faith on the Russia-Ukraine frontline

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian army personnel have been killed since the Russian invasion of their country. Russian casualties are likely to run into the hundreds of thousands. But who rallies the troops when morale crumbles and fear creeps in? How important are religion and faith in the war effort?

Lucy Ash hears from two military chaplains who live alongside troops on the Ukrainian side of the trenches. 44-year-old Father Dymtro has lost some of his closest friends in the war and was himself injured in a Russian attack in 2022. But he tells Lucy, that has not shaken his faith. “I tell the troops we are fighting a just war”, he says.
Sister Sasha spends two weeks each month with frontline soldiers. “I talk to them, listen to them; people get worn down, sometimes little bit frustrated, we're all people after all,” Sister Sasha says.

“The work of military chaplains is one of the most important conditions for our victory,” says the head of the Russian military chaplains, Father Dmitry Vasilkenkov. “A believer is a person who is not afraid of death.”
Most Russian clerics are too fearful to speak to foreign media, but one priest, opposed to the war, tells Lucy that faith and taking communion are like “some kind of magic charm” offered to troops going into battle. He says that when trying to comfort grieving relatives of dead soldiers, he can only tell them: “pray to God, the Lord is our hope, the Lord is comforting us.”

Producer: Mike Lanchin
Research assistance: Katie Harris
Executive Producer: Kristine Pommert
A CTVC production for BBC World Service

(Photo: Ukrainian soldiers with their military chaplain. Credit: Fr Dmytro Danylenko)