Russia's actions toward Ukraine, including missile strikes on churches, show that it is targeting evangelicals, said Pavlo Unguryan, the executive secretary for the Ukrainian Evangelical Conservative Movement and a former member of the country's parliament.
"It was a crazy, difficult, horrible week for us as evangelicals, as protestants in Ukraine," Unguryan said on Newsmax's "Chris Salcedo Show."
He noted the death of Ukrainian priest Yuriy Klymko, who was killed at The Church of Jesus Christ in the city of Kupiansk in eastern Ukraine, and that last weekend Russia "attacked Odesa by Iranian drones," including a strike on an apartment building.
"The family of the Baptist pastor Nikolai Sidak died there," said Unguryan, referring to reports that the pastor's young children were killed.
"I have a picture of this family that you can see here, and they had two kids," he said. "Twelve people died there, were killed there by Russian terrorists, which used Iranian drones against Ukraine, against Israel. ... This is real, what the Russians do in Ukraine targeting especially evangelicals in Ukraine."
He also pointed out Wednesday's missile strike in Odesa, which came as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis were ending a tour of the port city.
"Praise God, they are living, both of them right now, but the explosion was very close to them," Unguryan said. "But praise God, God protect them."
Unguryan also thanked American Christians for their prayers.
"We want to say thank you to American congressmen and senators, everybody who supports us," he said. "Please understand Russia is a dictatorship, a country that hates Christianity, hates especially evangelicals. They call us American agents, CIA agents."
Unguryan added that he is a fourth-generation Baptist.
"My grandfather was persecuted in the Soviets' time, and right now, Russia continues to do the same," he said. "They [are] united together with North Korea, with Iran, and [they] unite together against Christianity, against our Christian civilization in Ukraine. We have right now just an existential war in Russia, targeting its special evangelicals. Please pray about us. Please help us.
"Please ask your congressman to help us because, for us, it is a question of life because we are a Christian nation, an evangelical nation, and we are very a missionary-oriented nation. This is the time of history when the devil wants to destroy our Christian civilization."
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