It was the third heavy assault on Kyiv in less than a month. Previous strikes on May 13–14 and 23–24 in Kyiv and other locations were just as devastating, if not more so. This time, at least 22 people were killed, and more than 130 were wounded.

Eric Mock with Slavic Gospel Association was in Ukraine at the time but departed a few hours after the assault began. He says those outside Ukraine might call the attacks an escalation in the war, but for Ukrainians themselves, “it has become commonplace almost every night to have air raid sirens, to hear explosions, to hear about the loss of life.”

Polina, 16 years old. She said to appreciate your peace. (Photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association)

But commonplace does not mean easy. 

“It’s overwhelming for the people, it’s overwhelming for the children, and very difficult to experience.”

One teenager Mock talked with before he left was 16-year-old Polina. 

“Appreciate the peace that you have,” Polina told Mock. 

An 18-year-old named Anton told him, “We wish Americans would understand there really is a war here, and that they too would appreciate the peace that they have.”

Other Ukrainians sent similar messages to those outside their country, Mock says, including calls to pray for them and to care for them. 

“It’s actually getting worse for them,” Mock says. “The number of fathers that are being killed, leaving war widows to care for families… the number of families that aren’t able to find work and survive, and just the overwhelming need that the churches are stepping up to deal with continues to press on.”

Yet this grim context is where God has called many of His people to live and serve. SGA comes alongside hundreds of Bible-preaching churches in Ukraine who are ministering the gospel and practical help in countless ways. 

“What we’ve been doing is helping them to buy the food locally, which includes medicine, hygiene items, and different things like that, and as well as trucking that aid in from Poland,” says Mock. 

SGA has helped to provide more than 31 million meals as of May 2026. Practical aid has also included providing firewood, heating oil, and small heaters so that people could survive the winter, as Russia attacked Ukraine’s power grid.

Aid distribution in Ukraine. (Photo courtesy of SGA)

Christians in Ukraine ask that others pray with them for peace to come. Pray for hearts to turn to Christ in the suffering. Mock says pastors in Ukraine are seeing this happen in real time.

“They see people that would have never come to church, who are coming to church — people who never considered Christ are coming to faith,” he says. 

The third prayer request may have to do with you.  “Pray that God continues to move people’s hearts to get involved,” says Mock.

Connect with SGA at their website, sga.org, to learn what getting involved could look like.

“A small help can go a big way. For a child that doesn’t have any food, doesn’t have any hope, and then all of a sudden you enable the church to show the love of Christ and share the love of Christ and make a difference,” says Mock.

Header photo: Eric Mock with pastors on the front line. (Photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association)

Flares of fighting continued this week, with Hezbollah drone attacks and Israeli strikes along the border.

Eric Mock with the Slavic Gospel Association (SGA) says, “People in northern Israel are constantly in fear. Some are not able to go to jobs, maybe some of the jobs have stopped, and they’re in great need.”

(Photo courtesy of SGA)

Amid the uncertainty, SGA supports Russian-speaking churches in Israel that are encouraging people with tangible aid and Jesus’ love.

“About 20% of the population of Israel are Russian-speaking and Russian-speaking immigrants,” says Mock. “We work with a network of Russian-speaking Bible-teaching churches who are reaching their own. These are Russian-speaking immigrants, primarily from Ukraine and Russia…. Imagine a people that are even today considered somewhat Samaritans, and they are faithfully ministering with the Gospel.”

Mock says ministry efforts offer tangible relief and Gospel hope. “In these difficult times, people are looking for answers. SGA has been able to…support these faithful servants and their churches [with] resources for taking food to those people who are displaced, who are struggling in the middle of the rocket fire in the north.”

(Photo courtesy of SGA)

Through SGA’s Israel Relief fund, local pastors receive support to continue their work.

“By supporting this, you’re not just handing food to people,” says Mock. “These people are hearing the Gospel. These people are hearing a message of hope that will be unshakable.”

Header photo: Israel-Lebanon border. (Photo courtesy of Eternalsleeper | Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9439853)

Mock says the villages he went to were covered in craters from rocket and drone fire, and roughly half the homes were destroyed.

Nowhere to Go

(Photo courtesy of SGA)

“I encountered…an entire facility that was built underground with the capacity to teach over 500 children in an elementary school. The city administration headquarters, everything was underground, under reinforced concrete – in other words, like a bunker. This was their life,” Mock says.

“You may ask, ‘Why would anyone live there?’ Well, simply, the people that are there have nowhere to go. A majority are either elderly or single moms with children, and they literally have nowhere to go.”

Mock describes visiting one church building that expected maybe 30 people to show up. The room was instead filled with 70 Ukrainian grandmothers, all hoping to get some food and basic medications.

(Photo courtesy of SGA)

He says the elderly women “came up to me just flooded with tears, saying, ‘Please, thank the people. We are so hungry and in so much pain.’ They didn’t have simple medicines like Advil or Tylenol,…or simple foods to make it through the day. They were desperate.

“They wanted to know why. Why would someone help people that seem to feel there was no help? I said, ‘It’s because of God’s grace upon us. Nothing we have was not meant to be shared. But ultimately, it’s about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.'”

Monster Trucks and the Heart of a Child

When Mock left for Ukraine, he wasn’t just bringing supplies from SGA. His young grandson, Asher, also sent his favorite toy monster truck to be gifted to a child in Ukraine. Then, while Mock was distributing aid, he met a toddler named Danil.

Eric Mock giving Danil the toy monster truck. (Photo courtesy of SGA)

“He’s standing there dirty, and you could hear the explosions in the background, and you see the difficulty of his living. I knelt down and handed him this monster truck. He looked at me for a second in pure shock. But…in the midst of everything, he literally dropped down in the dirt, making engine sounds, and started playing with his truck in the dirt.”

Mock says, “He didn’t care about all the circumstances. He didn’t know what would come tomorrow. He just knew in that moment that he had been given a gift, and he wanted to have all of the gift and experience it. May we, too, be the same way with our Heavenly Father when He gives us these good gifts.”

Ask God to uplift Ukrainians’ hearts like young Danil.

“Do not lose sight of the needs that are there,” Mock urges. “The need is overwhelming in Ukraine…. The lives they live over there are stunningly difficult.”

You can support SGA’s relief efforts in Ukraine at their website.

He asks, “Pray that they would be faithful in the middle of these difficult times, and their witness would lead us in whatever we face to be faithful.”

Header photo courtesy of SGA.

One building destroyed was not a military target, but a church building in Zaporizhzhia. Yet, Eric Mock with Slavic Gospel Association (SGA) says the church lives on through the people of God.

The church in Zaporizhzhia destroyed by Russian drone and missile attack. (Photo courtesy of SGA)

Mock was in Zaporizhzhia recently, visiting ministry partners. He shares, “Church leaders and pastors there who traveled to multiple villages that were in an area called the gray zone, which is about 20 miles away from the front lines.

“[It was] close enough that we could hear the rumble of explosions in the distance, and close enough that the people lived in terror every single day of small drones that would fly around with explosives and take out people. These villages were literally decimated.”

For these pastors, going to the mission field looks like putting on literal body armor along with the spiritual armor of God. Mock says they’ve counted the cost.

“These pastors were there because they could not live with the thought that someone could perish apart from the Gospel. And so they come.”

Mock explains, “In these villages with these pastors, we help them do what they cannot do by providing the resources. And they do what we cannot do, which is almost daily wearing body armor [and] heading into the front lines to advance the Gospel and the goodness of God to a people who are hurting and lost.”

Eric Mock (center right) in a village near the front lines. (Photo courtesy of Eric Mock/SGA)

As the war drags on, embattled Ukrainians are struggling for hope.

“Generations are being impacted by this. So pray, first of all, that the believers would not be discouraged, that they would not be indifferent or lose heart, that they would remain faithful,” he asks.

“But mostly, pray for faithfulness in the midst of what the Lord continues to allow for His purposes…. Churches are being planted, congregations are moving forward, and God is continuing to be glorified in difficult times.”

You can support SGA’s relief efforts in Ukraine at sga.org.

Header photo: The church in Zaporizhzhia destroyed by Russian drone and missile attack. (Photo courtesy of SGA)

Eric Foley with VOM Korea explains that after decades of faithful service in Russia, 70-year-old Park was stopped on her way home to South Korea in January. She’s now in a Russian holding facility, facing alleged immigration charges that could carry an up to 17-year prison sentence. 

VOM Korea has ensured that Park has an attorney, a critical part of the process. 

“She says that while she’s reading her Bible daily, and she’s confident in the Lord, she just wants to come home,” says Foley. 

The charges against Park are a mask for Russia’s underlying issue: her missionary work among children. 

“That’s what happens in countries, whether it’s North Korea, China, Russia, or other countries. Rarely do you hear about religious charges,” Foley says. “Instead, what you get are charges like in China, the charges against pastors these days are that pastors are committing fraud. In Russia, a lot of charges these days relate to immigration.”

(Photo courtesy of VOM Korea)

Your advocacy can make a difference! But the how matters. Foley warns against two common mistakes Christians make when responding to persecution. 

“One is that they say nothing,” he says. “The other is that they speak so loudly and stridently that they demonize the government about whom they’re speaking.” 

Foley says that in VOM Korea’s decades of advocacy for Christian prisoners, “Not one of them has ever said, ‘I wish you would have been quiet when I was in prison.’ So we don’t need to yell and be human rights crusaders. We do simply need to tell the truth about what’s happening.”

Even the simple act of signing a petition shows a government that people around the world know what is happening and that they are willing to speak the truth about it. 

Pray especially for favor as VOM Korea delivers the signed petition to the Russian embassy very soon. 

“When you visit an embassy with a petition, they don’t welcome you in and serve you tea,” Foley says. 

“It’s an experience for which we really request a lot of prayer, because sometimes the gates get shut, sometimes the tables get turned, and the people who deliver the petitions end up being seen as the disturbers of the peace.”

Header photo courtesy of VOM Korea. 

That’s the update from persecution watchdog Voice of the Martyrs Korea, which has been advocating for the release of Missionary Park since her arrest on January 15, one week before she was scheduled to return home to Korea to retire at age 70. The missionary continues to be held at an immigration detention center.

According to Voice of the Martyrs Korea CEO Pastor Eric Foley, authorities have also seized Missionary Park’s house in Russia and fined the missionary for overstaying her visa, despite the overstay being due to her detainment by Russian authorities. Pastor Foley calls these actions “serious violations of the law that demand remedy by the court and the action of Christians around the world on Missionary Park’s behalf.”

(Photo courtesy VOMK)

Voice of the Martyrs Korea has posted a petition online at https://vomkorea.com/en/petition-2026 calling for Missionary Park’s immediate release.

Pastor Foley says that so far more than 3,700 people in Korea have added their names to the petition, along with 750 people from the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Africa, and Finland. Pastor Foley says he and Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley will deliver the petition to the Russian Embassy in Seoul once 5,000 signatures are secured.

“We need to let Russian authorities know that the world is watching to see how they will treat this 70-year old single woman who for more than 30 years said she was ‘married to Russia’, serving Russian people—especially children—with her whole heart, with not even a single complaint against her during that time,” says Pastor Foley. He says that more than a dozen people in Russia and Korea have stepped forward to provide official character references to submit to the court on Missionary Park’s behalf.

Pastor Foley says that the three charges against Missionary Park are all immigration-related and deal with assistance Missionary Park allegedly provided to Koreans to enter Russia. Two of the charges carry maximum 5-year sentences, and the third carries a maximum 7-year sentence, leading to a possible maximum 17-year sentence between the three charges.

He says that although the charges are explicitly immigration-related, Voice of the Martyrs Korea remains concerned that the motivation for the charges is religious.

“Voice of the Martyrs Korea obtained copies of a notification sent out in January by the Khabarovsk Department of Education to educational and other child care institutions in the area. The notification says in part, ‘In the capital of the region, a citizen of South Korea, an agent of an American organization Park Tae-Yeon’s Child Evangelism Fellowship set up a brainwashing machine for children, instilling values alien to our society and drawing them into the practice of the Korean-American form of Protestantism.’ The statement continues: ‘Russian children were set against the family and the state, and Park Tae-yong herself was presented to them as the main life guide. The camp was carefully conspiratorial.’ The notification concludes: ‘Park Tae-Yeon intended to take Russian children to South Korea for final zombification, but did not have time. Now Park Tae-Yeon has been detained, a criminal case has been opened for organizing illegal migration.’”

Park Tae-yong
(Photo courtesy VOMK)

Pastor Foley says that similar reports appeared in state-affiliated Russian media in late January.

“The criminal charges and media campaign against Missionary Park reflect the continued decline in religious freedom across the Russian Federation, particularly as it relates to Protestant Evangelicals,” says Pastor Foley. “The 2025 US Commission on International Religious Freedom report on Russia says, ‘Russia criminalizes the activities of several peaceful religious groups by designating them as “terrorist,” “extremist,” or “undesirable,” despite no evidence of their promotion of or participation in violence.’ That’s exactly what we see in the case of Missionary Park. Her activity hasn’t changed for more than 30 years. The only thing that has changed is that now Russian authorities calls people like her ‘extremists’, ‘brainwashers’, and ‘conspirators against Russia’, despite all common-sense evidence to the contrary.”

Since 2021, the United States has designated Russia as one of 12 ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ for religious freedom violations, along with countries including China, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and Cuba.

Individuals interested in signing the petition on behalf of Missionary Park can visit https://vomkorea.com/en/petition-2026.

Header image is a screenshot from a video of missionary Park’s arrest posted on the Биржа политиков – Хабаровский край (Political Marketplace – Khabarovsk Krai Telegram Channel)

Dane of unfoldingWord says Bible work continues in Eastern Europe, often taking different forms depending on local needs.

In one Ukrainian community, the ministry is developing tools to help people better understand Bible books. “They’re creating dictionaries based on those books,” says Dane.

The same community also provides education for translators. Leaders say the goal is to strengthen the theological training of those working on Bible translation, even as the war continues.

A local pastor said, as quoted by Dane:

“We’ve also started raising the theological education level of all of our translators. Despite the difficult circumstances, they’ve enrolled in a Bible college.”

In another area of eastern Ukraine, believers are making Scripture more interactive through digital projects. Dane says: “A church planter is producing media projects with their translation of open Bible stories.”

Poltava during war, Ukraine (image courtesy of Margarita Marushevska via Unsplash)

This work is possible because of unfoldingWord’s approach, which focuses on equipping local believers to lead the translation work themselves.

“We’re building capacity into the local church so that they can translate the Bible for themselves, for their people, in their heart language,” explains Dane.

With the ministry’s open-license resources, local believers can continue the work even without outside support or funding. They are trained and equipped with the ministry’s tools to adapt what they learn to their own realities and local challenges. This approach is used globally and looks different in each community.

“The church-centric Bible translation model builds Bible translation capabilities into other teams and countries, and across project and country lines,” says Dane.

Please pray for local leaders in Ukraine and Eastern Europe involved in creative translation work. Pray that Scripture, as the living water, would quench the thirst of many people.

Visit unfoldingWord to see how they partner with churches around the world to bring Scripture to all people.

Header representative photo of the Gural people in Ukraine, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Gazeta1509 via Wikimedia Commons).

An estimated 1.8 million soldiers have been killed, injured, or are missing on both sides, the Associated Press reports, with Russia bearing the brunt of the losses. Nearly six million Ukrainians fled to neighboring countries, and approximately 3.7 million remain displaced within Ukraine.

Bible translators were not immune when Russia invaded Ukraine. Dane of unfoldingWord says one gateway language project had to be put on hold.

“We were using Russian as a gateway language because almost everybody [in the former Soviet Union] was forced to learn it,” he explains.

“The war has had a devastating impact on Bible translation and church planting efforts, including our ability to deliver completed translation guides in Russian to the Church-Centric Bible translators across the former Soviet Union.”

War forces change

unfoldingWord equips believers in the local church to translate Scripture into minority languages. More about that here. A team working near the front lines in eastern Ukraine had to be relocated when the war began.

(Photo courtesy Алесь Усцінаў/Pexels)

“That team had six translators and was doing really well. They [were] working through translating the Bible into Ruska Roma,” Dane says.

“The Romani people are scattered all over Europe [with] various versions of the Roma language. That version (Ruska Roma) has about 29,000 people.”

Today, like many Ukrainians, believers are living far from home. In a recent report, the team leader told Dane that daily survival takes priority.

“He said, ‘I am living in a place without heat, water, or electricity because one night, Russia bombed the heat and power stations. As a result, no pumps can deliver water to the apartment buildings where people live, including people with infants and relatives who are bedridden’,” Dane says.

“‘For us right now, getting food can feel like something out of The Hunger Games. But,’ he said, ‘we continue working on Bible translation.’”

Perseverance shifts perceptions

Yet believers see a glimmer of hope. In their language community throughout Eurasia, “evangelical Christians have always been viewed with a little suspicion,” Dane says.

“But because they’ve stayed and they’re serving their neighbors, people are beginning to have a different attitude about the evangelicals and the Gospel they preach.”

(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Keep praying for the Russia-Ukraine war to end. Pray that unfoldingWord receives the funding it needs to get the Eurasia translation project back online.

“We really can’t do much until this war comes to an end, but when it does come to an end, we need to have our funding ready to go,” Dane says.

“Pray for those church planters who are staying in Ukraine when they could leave. If you want to stay up to date with what unfoldingWord is doing around the world, please go to our website and sign up for a prayer calendar that is sent out via email every month.”

Header image depicts an elderly woman peering over the edge of a recently bombed site in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo courtesy Mykhailo Volkov/Pexels.

Trans World Radio (TWR) is working with local ministry partners in both Russia and Ukraine. Over the past four years, they have felt the strain from every angle — culturally, spiritually, and personally — as the conflict drags on with no clear end in sight.

A Gospel worker* with TWR remembers the early days of the invasion and the shock that rippled across the region.

Ukrainian flag (Photo courtesy of Max Kukurudziak/Unsplash)

“Of course, as everyone else in the world thought, ‘Okay, this will be maybe a very short…crisis.’ But I think after the first year, everyone realized that it will be way harder to find a solution. Starting in the second and third year, I remember that they were so, so tired because nobody was expecting it to take so long.”

As the conflict zones reached deeper into the country, the team began to experience water, electricity, and power shortages alongside their neighbors. Yet, they refused to fall silent.

“They still wanted to continue to produce the content,” he says, “because there is an audience out there, especially in wartime, who need to hear about the Gospel.”

After four years of war and an estimated 600,000 Ukrainian troops killed, the devastation has carved gaping holes in families and communities. Nearly every household carries a story of loss.

Through radio programs and digital outreach, TWR and their ministry partners meet people in that pain — offering steady reminders of hope when everything else feels unstable.

“The director in Ukraine always says there is one thing we’re talking about – God, and that He’s always there. Even in these circumstances and times, God is next to us. God is near, and we can rely on Him. This is what the Ukraine team is talking about all the time in their content.”

On the Russian side, the toll is staggering as well. Nearly 1.2 million troops have reportedly died in the conflict. TWR’s Gospel worker says many people in Russia are also facing grief and spiritual struggles.

At the same time, ministry has grown more complicated. As the Kremlin tightens its grip on internet access, apps, programs, and even VPN providers, reaching listeners requires constant adaptation.

He explains, “You see that you have 5,000 subscribers, and the next day there is no one because they can’t reach the platform. So…they need to follow the audience. Where everyone is going, they need to follow regarding the connection, but also regarding the content. So upload the content again and again and again, kind of moving from one platform to the other, to not lose all our audience – because they have, as the Ukrainian people as well, questions and are waiting for the war to end.”

The spiritual hunger has not diminished. If anything, it has deepened.

Please pray for peace — for a just end to the war and for comfort for grieving families on both sides. Pray, too, that the Gospel would flourish in the middle of the devastation, reaching those searching for hope in their darkest hours.

Also, TWR’s Gospel worker adds, “Pray for…protection for our teams – and I would say on both sides. It’s still a miracle that four years after starting the war, no one was affected. No one was kind of drawn to the military from our [ministry partners], and that’s a blessing. But the people in the countries, they need the content of our teams. So please pray for security for our [partner] teams.”

Learn more about TWR’s vital faith ministry at twr.org.

*Name withheld for security purposes.

Russia (MNN) — There’s encouraging news to share about a South Korean missionary detained in Russia — and many are calling it an answer to prayer.

Ms. Park Tae-Yeon, 69, has been held by Russian authorities since January 15. Earlier this week, Mission Network News reported on her arrest and an online petition calling for her release. That story was picked up by South Korean media, and quickly reached people who could help.

(Photo courtesy of VOM Korea)

Eric Foley with The Voice of the Martyrs Korea says those headlines mattered.

“We really believe it is [an] answer to prayer. The Voice of the Martyrs Korea has confirmed that Ms. Park met for 40 minutes with a representative from the Korean consulate on the afternoon of February 3.”

Park is also in a better living situation now. “We can confirm that today, Ms. Park was moved from the detention center to house arrest after submitting a pledge not to leave Russia until the end of the investigation,” Foley says.

Park was targeted at the same time as Child Evangelism Fellowship in a months-long investigation by Russian officials. The charges against her remain unchanged, which means the hard work is still ahead.

Foley says the situation highlights a broader pattern.

Russian flag (Photo courtesy of Dimmis Vart/Unsplash)

“This is an example of the increasing restrictions on religious liberty, especially for evangelicals in Russia. So let’s make sure we’re praying for both of those situations — one, the release of Ms. Park, but also that this is really the tip of a very big iceberg.”

The Voice of the Martyrs Korea continues to collect signatures for a petition calling for Park’s immediate release. The ministry will deliver the petition to the Russian embassy shortly after the Lunar New Year.

Access the petition here.

Please pray for Park’s encouragement, protection, and full release. Pray also for Christian ministries in Russia, asking God to guard believers and keep the Gospel moving forward despite growing pressure.

Header photo of Ms. Park Tae-Yeon, courtesy of VOM Korea.