(Scott McIntyre/For The Washington Post via Getty Images) On Jan. 3, 2020, attendees pray together before President Donald Trump speaks to the crowd at an “Evangelicals for Trump’ rally in Miami, FL. (Scott McIntyre/For The Washington Post/Getty Images)
Donald Trump’s top priority in the final weeks of his campaign for the U.S. elections has been to relaunch the wave of evangelical support which was crucial to the success of his 2016 presidential campaign.
“I’ll tell another (group) who don’t vote. I love these people. Evangelical Christians,” Trump, Republican Party‘s presidential nominee, said at an October 6 rally.
“If (evangelicals did vote), we could not lose an election.”
In the run-up to the high stakes election where Trump is seeking a second term he’s not the only one courting Evangelicals. The group, which is largely conservative, has been the focus of Ukrainian lobbying for months in an effort to increase and cement Republican support for Ukraine.
By exposing Russia’s genocidal campaign against Ukraine, which involves Moscow persecuting Christians, including evangelicals and killing them, the hope is that Americans in Trump’s MAGA Movement — specifically, the influential religious right — will change their position to support Ukraine.
Instead of echoing Trump and questioning American support for Ukraine’s existential struggle for survival, efforts are underway to convert them into a pro Ukrainian stance – reaching out to Ukraine as the victim, rather than Russia as the aggressor.
These efforts were successful in getting House Speaker Mike Johnson – an evangelical himself – to allow Ukraine’s $61 million delayed aid package to be passed in April. With nearly 80% evangelicals voting for Trump both in 2016 and 2020 and 62% Republicans saying that the U.S. was not responsible for Ukraine’s aid, Johnson’s support and the evangelical base of Trump’s MAGA Movement isn’t guaranteed come November 5.
Johnson stated this on October 11, saying “I do not have a desire for additional Ukraine funding and I hope that it is not necessary.”
“If President Trump is elected, I think he can actually bring this conflict to an end. I really do. Johnson said in an interview with Punchbowl News that he believes Putin will call him and tell him it’s enough.
Ukraine’s evangelicals spread the word to America’s faithful
Mark Sergeyev is a displaced person who was displaced from Melitopol, which was occupied by Russia in the southeast Zaporizhzhia Oblast of Ukraine. He is one of many evangelicals who have been brought to the U.S. over the past few months. In July, he decided to take a break from his volunteer work as a chaplain in the front line to travel to Washington.
He brought a message to Congress: Russia’s full scale invasion is a spiritual war against Ukraine and Western civilisation.
In his testimony to lawmakers, Sergeyev stated, “I am a fifth generation evangelical Christian. My parents were always evangelical Christians, and they have been persecuted.”
“Russians make a weapon out of religion and they want to make my dad use his role as spiritual leader to praise the invasion,” he said, recalling a chaotic scene that took place outside his church at the beginning of 2022, when Russian soldiers had threatened his father to record a video saying Melitopol was Russian territory in front of the Church.
Sergeyev’s testimony has historical overtones. From the killing of Ukrainian Protestants by Russians in Slovyansk in 2014, when Russia launched its initial invasion of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas Region, to the destruction 600 houses of worship during the first two-and-a-half years of the full scale invasion.
To make his message relatable to the conservative American legislators in the room Sergeyev referred to the famous televangelist Joel Osteen, and his Texas megachurch.
Sergeyev stated in his testimony, “I was raised in a country of freedom and my father was the senior pastor at Melitipol Christian Church.” “Some American visitors compare us to Joel Olsteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston… We have a large stage, a large worship team.”
After Sergeyev’s testimony, Republican senator from Mississippi Roger Wicker stated, “Our witnesses remind us of a tragically ignored victim of the dictator Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine and that’s a Ukrainian evangelical community,” according Steven Moore, an ex-Republican staffer on Capitol Hill who was in Kyiv at the time and testified alongside Sergeyev. Moore spoke to the Kyiv Independent.
The U.S. nonprofit Defenders of Faith and Religious Freedom brought Sergeyev with them to Washington. The group is among the many evangelical leaders, lobbying groups and organizations that believe that the evangelical Christian communities in America are the best way to win over and sustain U.S. Republican Party support for Ukraine.
Nearly 90 million evangelicals live in the United States, and 82% of them are expected to vote for Trump this November. Their turnout is crucial for Trump’s chances of winning the election, but their voting will also influence which party controls U.S. legislation and future foreign policy.
For Kyiv to survive and win the war against Russia, it is essential that they win their hearts and minds.
The passage of $61 Billion in U.S. Aid to Ukraine in April is largely credited to the multiple evangelical levers used to convince Speaker Johnson – after reportedly receiving approval from Trump – to stop delaying and quickly adopt it.
Andriy Yerimak, the chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in an article published in one Washington’s major newspapers that Ukraine has nearly one million evangelicals.
In his article, titled “Ukraine’s evangelicals need U.S. Support,” Yermak describes “the long history” of American and Ukrainian evangelical cooperation. He calls on both sides to work together to “ensure that religious tolerance is maintained in Ukraine.”
It is important to appeal to the Christian values of evangelicals in order to drum up support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia, as well as combating Kremlin propaganda that has permeated the conservative political camps of America.
Even without propaganda, the idea that some Americans idolize Russian values is enough for them to fight. According to a poll conducted immediately after the April aid package, 24 percent of Republican primary candidates believe that Russia promotes traditional family values.
In Russia, however religion, like politics is heavily controlled. The dominant Russian Orthodox church serves Kremlin interest. Other religions, such as evangelicals, are suppressed.
Religious freedom has thrived in Ukraine. The Orthodox Christian faith, while the largest, is not dominant. A large portion of the population is also Protestant or Catholic. Along with religious leaders from the Muslim and Jewish faiths, they condemn Russia’s invasion as well as its war crimes.
Russia has also used religion as a justification for its war against Ukraine, claiming that it is necessary to “de-Nazify the country” even though Zelensky has Jewish roots.
Moore, who founded Ukraine Freedom Project, claims he is indirectly fighting a battle of disinformation against Tucker Carlson, a far-right media star, and conspiracy theorist Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
When Moore shows a video of Russian troops interrupting a Ukrainian service at a church, American Christians respond, “Wow, they are like me.” This allows his message to resonate among American churchgoers.
Moore claims that Carlson and Greene are feeding Russian propaganda into the same Republicans who he is reaching with his message of Ukrainian freedom. The conservative idols may be partly responsible for the false claim that is popular among the right, that Ukraine “persecutes Christians.” This false claim is allegedly due to the Ukrainian Parliament’s potential ban on the Kremlin linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate on August 20, and thus, amplifying conservative resistance to sending U.S. assistance to Ukraine.
“There’s no country that is more similar to Catholics and evangelicals than Ukraine,” said Don Bacon, a Republican Congressman from Nebraska, in an interview with the Kyiv Independent. “I heard a lady say it back home: ‘Why is Ukraine anti-evangelicals?
Moore claims that he constantly shuttles between Kyiv, Ukraine and Washington to gather Republican support for Ukraine. In an election where polls are close, every vote is important. That’s why the Democratic presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris uses an evangelical outreach strategy.
Stories of Russian persecution win hearts and open eyes
Moore believes that the story of Viktor Cherniivaski is a Ukrainian evangelist who claims a Russian Orthodox Priest watched Russian soldiers tortured him. Another concern is the threat to Ukrainian religious freedom by the “evil alliance” of Russia, Iran, and North Korea in their war against Ukraine.
This could encourage more conservatives to support the war. Moore gains Republican attention when he says that Russia uses the same Iranian drones as Iran does against Israel against Ukraine.
Speaker Johnson received a request from the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy arm for the Southern Baptist Convention, to pass the aid package on April 24.
The letter stated: “I am writing in order to express my concern that our convention continue to support the peoples of Ukraine in their struggle to protect their national sovereignty.” “We welcome Congress’s action to prevent any further loss of lives and support their work in providing additional assistance to Ukraine.”
Ryan Burge is a political scientist, and a Baptist minister. He said that the ERLC represents an elite side in the divide among American evangelicals.
In a second letter to the Speaker, the Baptist Union of Ukraine joined the former president of the ERLC.
The letter begins: “We ask you to humbly consider the plight and suffering of Christians.”
Pavlo Unguryan was working the crowd when former President Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention with his running mate JDVance in July. An evangelical from Odesa in Ukraine, Pavlo worked the crowd. Unguryan knows that it’s more than just getting the message through to Speaker Johnson.
He spent his time at the RNC telling conservatives about Russia’s repeated history of repression against religions in Ukraine that are not Russian Orthodox.
Unguryan told Republicans that he wanted to speak to as many Republicans at the RNC as possible. He explained to conservatives they could maintain their geopolitical concerns, economic concerns, and military concerns about the war, while also supporting U.S. assistance to Ukraine, because the war was “spiritual.” Russia is attacking all Christian civilizations in the West, Unguryan told Republicans.
Unguryan’s and others’ efforts did not end with the April aid package.
In June, Zelensky was the first head-of-state to attend the National Prayer Breakfast, an event hosted by the Ukrainian government and modeled after the American gathering of the same name, where politicians and guests gather for prayer.
Speaker Johnson’s video address to Kyiv’s prayer breakfast said: “We pray for continued strength of Ukrainian forces, safety of the Ukrainian population, and lasting peace in the homeland.”
Johnson’s partial shift to support Ukraine and its eventual passing signaled the strategy was successful. Unguryan will return to Washington early in December, after the inauguration, of the 47th President, regardless of the outcome of the election.
This work was not just important for one particular aid package or any current situation in the frontline. American evangelicals will be a key part of the long-term support that Ukraine needs from the U.S. in the future, according to Jonathan Katz, national security expert at Brookings Institute.
Johnson, a top Trump ally, is the key to winning over Johnson.
Johnson, a Louisiana-based evangelical Southern Baptist, was widely credited with the stalling of the April aid package and its eventual passage. He has stated that he plans to remain as speaker after the 2024 presidential elections.
Burge, after speaking to many evangelical leaders, said: “Mike Johnson is not a part the discourse, he is not a thought-leader.” “I think that they all understand that Mike Johnson is the least-bad option.”
Johnson has been more vocal about the issue, and the Ukrainian faith leaders that went to Washington to send letters to the speaker were able to get through. Johnson’s passionate and personal tone was evident on the sidelines of Washington’s NATO Summit, where he detailed his frustrations over the killings of Christian Ukrainians by Russia, tying the issue back to American religious liberty.
Johnson said, “The communists always do it. They go after the Christians first.” “Why? They believe that they owe allegiance to something higher than the state, the government. You have to eliminate it… It’s vile and vicious, and it shows what Putin and his government are all about.”
Moore was surprised to hear Johnson’s remarks, despite having spent years as a Republican Hill staffer and being raised an evangelical. Moore had just returned from the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital attack in Kyiv, when he heard the speaker.
Moore said, “After hearing Johnson say what you want to hear from a leader on national security issues, that was really cool.”
Johnson is not alone in his support for Ukraine. It’s unclear to what extent he will allow his evangelical connections influence him.
Razom for Ukraine is an advocacy group based in Washington that has gained support for Ukraine from crucial swing districts of the South and Midwest through engaging with evangelical communities.
Daniel Balson, a Razom employee, took a team of Razom employees to Shreveport in Louisiana, Johnson’s home town, in March 2024. Balson brought Roman Rubchenko with him. Rubchenko appeared on a local program and spoke about the need for continued support of Ukraine in Louisiana, where he played college basketball at a school that was highly regarded by the residents.
Balson said, “The focus of Shreveport – we wanted people to see themselves in Ukraine and to feel connected to the country.”
Johnson’s Shrevport team was listening when they met Razom. The Republican staffers were open and eager to learn. Johnson approved the $61 billion aid to Ukraine less than two months after their meeting.
Matt Taylor, a researcher at the Institute for Islamic Christian and Jewish Studies who studies the intersection between evangelicals and politics, said that Mike Johnson was in some ways like a weather vape. “He is a creature from the religious right. He tends to triangulate, and find the best position that will offend as few evangelicals as possible while also trying not to get in the way of Trump.”
When Balson returns to Washington from Shreveport or Wisconsin after engagement tours in multi-religious areas, lawmakers want to know what Balson heard and saw. Moore shared photos with Balson in Kyiv of a Protestant whose entire backside was bruised by Russian state security. These photos are useful for Balson to convey his message.
Balson reminds voters in districts hostile to Ukraine that foreign policy, like taxes, childcare and housing, is subject to political influence. Their emotional response to religious liberty is enough to influence conversations in Washington.
Speaker Johnson reminded Kyiv about this exact matter in late Septembre when, amid the hostilities between Trump & Zelensky, he signed a recommendation that Zelensky fires his U.S. The visit of the Ambassador to an arms manufacturer located in Pennsylvania, a swing state that is important for Ukraine. The visit was attended by Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro. Republican politicians were excluded.
The efforts of the various organizations in this area are focused on the Republican base as Johnson has already been threatened to be ousted from his position as speaker. Moore, from the Ukraine Freedom Project, said that he would be disappointed if Johnson lost his speakership. He sees Johnson as a good counterpoint to Trump’s running-mate JDVance, particularly on Ukraine.
Continued outreach efforts to reach out to US lawmakers
Speaker Johnson was not present when Sergeyev, a chaplain from the Russian Orthodox Church, testified on the Hill. Sergeyev needed to get his message across to him.
Two evangelicals sat in the Capitol’s spacious gallery, watching the procession, during Benjamin Netanyahu‘s fiery speech that day. Speaker Johnson was one of them, and Gary Marx, a Republican Strategist, was the other.
After attending Kyiv’s prayer breakfast in the month of June, Marx wrote to the conservative Washington Times: “Patriarch Kiril, of the Russian Orthodox church Moscow Patriarchate, has called Russia’s attack on Ukraine a ‘holy war’ which is synonymous with jihad, the Muslim concept. Ukrainian Christians want to live in freedom and worship God the way they choose, just like American evangelicals.
Marx, who heads the organization Defenders Of Faith And Religious Freedom In Ukraine, part of a $3.6 Million effort from Kyiv Global Outreach took the opportunity reminding conservative leaders in Washington about the religious persecution Russia pursued in Ukraine.
The relationship between the speaker, Marx, and American evangelicals is a symbol of the larger, more delicate, and sometimes behind-the scenes efforts to expand U.S. aid for Ukraine.
Marx said, “If (Russian president Vladimir) Putin suddenly allowed religious freedom and embraced the evangelical community, then we would not have a real leg to stand on. But I don’t think that will happen.”
Unguryan who was with Johnson when the decision was made to pass the aid for Ukraine in April said that Johnson’s rise to the position of speaker was just the next step of their long-standing friendship.
According to Marx, Johnson was persuaded to let the aid pass because evangelicals like Unguryan – a former member of the Ukrainian Parliament from Odesa – were constantly in his ear, blaming the suffering of Christians in Ukraine.
Johnson was convinced to send the aid after he shared anecdotal accounts and photos of Ukrainian Christians who were suffering at the hands Russians. He also received intelligence briefings.
Marx said that the case for combining the personal and professional intelligence briefings is persuasive. “I think it was the personal intelligence briefings that made the difference,” Marx said.
Unguryan said that he regularly shows Johnson the “real” picture of Ukraine whenever he has the chance, from occupied and burnt churches to explaining the “holy war” he says Russia is waging similar to the Islamic State attacks on Western civilization based on Judeo Christian values.
Unguryan, months before the U.S. State Department claimed that the Russian state-run RT used Kremlin-provided intelligence to spread propaganda in the West and Ukraine, was working to counter false images created by Russian agents. He took his message about Russia’s war on Ukraine and the West to Capitol Hill.
Unguryan stated that “Russia, a totalitarian criminal nation, wants to portray itself as a conservative Christian country. But that’s not true, and I tried to communicate that to Mike Johnson.”
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