Pastor and chaplain Gennadiy Mokhnenko and volunteer Azat Azatyan recall the Russian occupation of Mariupol and the evacuation of civilians, especially children

Gennadiy Mokhnenko, part of the 200-member chaplain battalion in Ukraine, was driving away from the front lines when he noticed a Russian kamikaze drone trailing him. “I pushed down on all the gas,” he told me. “My car was just a little faster than the drone.”

“Evil never stops on its own. Someone has to stop it,” believes Pastor Gennadiy Mokhnenko of the Church of Good Changes. When the Russian army attacked Ukraine in 2014 the Protestant pastor did not think long about which side to take. Together with his sons, he began digging trenches around Mariupol to stop the advancing evil.

Am 18. November 2024 wird es 1.000 Tage her sein, dass Russland die Ukraine angegriffen hat. Pastor Gennadiy Mokhnenko arbeitet als Militärseelsorger an den Frontlinien des Krieges in der Ukraine. Was der evangelikale Christ dabei erlebt und welche inneren Kämpfe er selbst durchstehen muss, hat er IDEA-Redakteurin Erika Gitt erzählt. Gennadiy Mokhnenkos Leben gleicht einem

One year after a tragic bombing of a humanitarian aid depot and shelter in a front line town, a 10/11 reporter returns to the rubble.

Chaplain of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and father of 41 children (38 of whom are adopted) serves on the front lines and dreams of returning to his hometown.

On April 12, the new project “100 Crosses – 100 Peaks – 100 Gratitudes” by the Pilgrim Charity Foundation was launched. The goal of the project is to climb 100 Carpathian peaks and install 100 Christian crosses, which will symbolize gratitude to God, the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and partners for their support and help in difficult times. To date, four crosses have already been installed.

After Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022, some 20,000 Ukrainian children were forcefully transferred to Russia. As the city of Mariupol was being surrounded by Russian troops, the head of a Christian orphanage decided to take matters into his own hands to get 19 children to safety. With support from the Pulitzer Center, special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky reports.

Pastor Mokhnenko has 39 children: three biological and 36 adopted. “My story is very strange. When stuntmen perform, there’s a sign that says ‘Do not try this at home.’ When ‘Republic of Pilgrim’ returns, we will take two more kids into our family. I’m already completing the paperwork. These children were half a step away from becoming my adoptive children on the eve of February 24th. They already spent the night in our family, already told their friends that the pastor is taking them. And then I take the children out racing with tanks, hug them, and return to Mariupol, realizing that my chances of survival are slim. It brings me immense joy that after two years they will be in my family, that God gave me the strength to survive. These will be the fortieth and forty-first child: a brother and sister, Nikita and Nastya.

Gennadiy Mokhnenko is a Ukrainian pastor from Mariupol, a chaplain, father of 39 children, and the founder of the rehabilitation center for children “Republic Pilgrim,” which has hosted around five thousand people during its existence.