How Ukrainian protestants helped bring Ukraine's aid to US Congress

For over six months, the US Congress couldn't approve a £61 billion aid package for Ukraine at the request of President Biden's administration. In February, the Senate voted for the aid, but Speaker Mike Johnson did not bring it to a vote in the House of Representatives. Ukrainians, including government officials, politicians, veterans, relatives of the fallen, had tried to reach out to the Speaker for all those weeks.

Among these numerous petitioners were those who the same language with the Speaker - the language of Christian believers. Read more in the article by Tetiana Vorozhko, a chief executive editor with VOA's Ukrainian Service - Victory on religious front: How Speaker Johnson was persuaded to restore US aid to Ukraine. Advertisement:

On 2 March, Odesa resident Serhii Gadarzhi lost his wife and son in a Russian drone attack. For many months, Ukrainian air defence had lacked the means to repel Russian missile and drone attacks. The situation could have improved with passing a £61 billion aid package for Ukraine as requested by President Biden's administration, which got stuck in Congress for six months.

Just three days before the vote, Gadarzhi, a Ukrainian Baptist and son-in-law of a local Baptist pastor, told his story to Johnson in person. The speaker already knew about his family's tragedy. That meeting followed eight months of behind-the-scenes efforts by Ukrainian Protestants and their allies in the United States to tell Republican members of Congress about the suffering of the faithful at the hands of the Russian forces in the occupied portions of Ukraine.

They spoke about the persecution of Ukrainian believers, the killings of priests and pastors by Russian troops in the occupied territories, the destruction of churches, prayer houses, Christian universities due to Russian missile and drone attacks across the rest of Ukraine. Some of these efforts were led by Oklahoma native Steven Moore, who worked as a chief of staff in the House of Representatives to a leading Republican member for seven years, after which he lived in Ukraine for a year. He was back in Ukraine on day five of the full-scale invasion.

Moore founded the Ukraine Freedom Project NGO (UFP), which began delivering food and supplies to the front for the residents and Ukraine's armed forces. Beginning in September 2023, Moore, his friend Karl Ahlgren, who also worked as chief of staff to a Republican congressman, and their Chief Operating Officer Anna Shvetsova met with about 100 members of Congress and their staff, telling them about the persecution of Ukrainian Protestants by Russians. They also launched the website RussiaTorturesChristians.org, which features video testimonies of Ukrainian believers who have endured torture by Russian military, as well as advertisements on social media in Speaker Johnson's district and 16 other electoral districts.

Other organisations, including the advocacy group Razom for Ukraine, joined the effort. "We sponsored a billboard with Mike Johnson's favourite Bible verse. It's a passage from the Book of Esther," said Melinda Haring, a senior adviser for Razom for Ukraine.

Razom placed six of the billboards in Louisiana featuring a photo of a destroyed Baptist church in Berdiansk with this Bible verse, including one in front of Johnson's Cypress Baptist Church in Shreveport. Razom, UFP and other organisations cosponsored multiple trips by Ukrainian religious leaders to the United States and helped them to organise meetings with members of Congress. The Speaker didn't rely solely on the words of fellow believers from Ukraine.

Numerous reports prepared by American government agencies and intelligence services landed on his desk. The campaign, involving hundreds of people in the US and Ukraine, was built on decades of cooperation between Protestant communities in both countries. On 20 April, Speaker Johnson finally brought the bill to a vote in the House of Representatives, and it was approved as expected.

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