As a volunteer military chaplain, Vancouver resident Mikhail Pavenko faces the constant threat of death during his visits to Ukraine.
Pavenko, who was born in Ukraine, routinely visits the war-torn country in Eastern Europe and recently returned home Aug. 30 after a three-week trip earlier this summer.
“So, the troops are spread out in those homes for safety so one [strike] doesn’t kill everybody at once. You’re assigned a home, you sleep there and that’s how we work out,” Pavenko said. “There’s nights we couldn’t get any sleep with air raids going off. I mean, sleep is kind of a luxury.”
At home, Pavenko keeps Clark County’s lights on as a lineman for Clark Public Utilities. Three times a year, however, he takes time away from his family to support the Ukrainian defensive line.
The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has left a profound mark on Pavenko. His family has endured a history of suffering at the hands of oppressive regimes — both his grandfather and great-grandfather were held for years as prisoners of war and for their Protestant faith. Pavenko’s father, who was born in a Soviet labor camp, took a 9-year-old Pavenko to the United States in 1996, where he became a U.S. citizen.
Pavenko said the war between Ukraine and Russia weighs heavily on him as he follows his family closely. He has lost three cousins in Russian-occupied Crimea, which he attributes to the targeted persecution of Protestant Christians. Seen as a “Western religion,” the Russian military has brutally targeted Protestant civilians. Following Russia’s 2014 invasion of the Crimean Peninsula, Pavenko sought ways to support Ukraine’s independence. In 2015, he connected with a group of volunteer military chaplains through Facebook.
“My faith and my love for freedom caused me to ask myself, how can I live here in the [United] State[s and] help my people attain the freedom that they’re fighting for?” Pavenko said. “Ever since then, I’ve been traveling to Ukraine and working with chaplains, medics [and] other volunteers where they’re on their front lines, in the trenches, doing evacs or in the hospitals.”
Pavenko has flown to Ukraine to volunteer more than a dozen times since 2015. His work as a chaplain in Ukraine extends beyond spiritual guidance; it involves providing humanitarian aid, arranging burials and delivering life-saving first aid to soldiers and civilians near the front lines. Pavenko noted that the brutality of the conflict has increased since the latest 2022 Russian invasion into Ukraine. For Pavenko, Russia’s aggression against the country paints a black-and-white picture.
“You have a modern-day Hitler who invaded a small nation in the middle of the night on [the] pretense of them being Nazis. This small nation voted for a Jewish president overwhelmingly, who had loved ones killed in the Holocaust,” Pavenko said. “I would say probably every family in Ukraine has been affected by this war in one way or another. Losing a loved one or having to relocate to a different city. … This war really, I think, has impacted everybody in Ukraine that I’ve spoken with.”
Pavenko observed that the brutality of the conflict has intensified since Russia’s 2022 invasion, with an increase in suicide drones and missile strikes targeting religious and civilian buildings. The war has been personally difficult for Pavenko. In addition to losing his cousins, he has lost seven friends in Ukraine, including three chaplains, in 2023. Supporting Ukrainian survivors has proven to be especially challenging for Pavenko.
“This soldier, he lost both of his legs, right? And when I visited him, he gave me his phone. He says, ‘Hey, call my wife and tell her when she walks in here that she doesn’t freak out because I have no legs. Can you let her know?’ ” Pavenko recalled. “I couldn’t do it … I did not make that call. Somebody else did, but that’s the type of trust that the troops put on us.”
Pavenko’s recent trip was his most harrowing yet because of the constant threat of long-range missiles and suicide drones that regularly plague civilians and the military, alike. During Pavenko’s visit to the southern village of Malokaterynivka, Russian rockets shelled the area, with one striking a playground and killing a 15-year-old boy named Dimitri. Pavenko described the aftermath as the most difficult experience in his life.
“I hugged a mother who had one of her sons basically sliced in half. I spoke with his father who was also a soldier. I gave him a little bit of money that I had. I hugged him, and the other chaplains prayed for him. But this is the reality of this war, right?” Pavenko said.
Pavenko speculates that one of the Russian Army’s aims is to break the spirit of the Ukrainian people through such attacks. He believes, however, that the brutality has had the opposite effect. Despite the tragedies, no one he has met has given up hope for Ukraine’s future.
“Pretty much everyone I spoke with wants the war to be done in a correct manner, meaning the Russians are kicked out, reparations are paid and justice served,” he said.
As of July 31, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported a total of 11,520 civilian deaths in Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion. Pavenko also highlighted Russia’s aggression against religious freedom in Ukraine. According to a February statement from the multinational International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance, 30 Ukrainian clergymen have been killed and 26 held captive since the invasion. Pavenko noted that 630 places of worship have been destroyed since then, and Protestant Christians living in Russian-occupied territories face persecution every day.
“It is illegal to be a Protestant Christian in occupied areas of Ukraine where Russia is at all. The Protestants, they have either left or they’re gathering underground … because the Russian government considers the Protestant evangelical faith [to be] a Western religion, right? The only faith they allow is a Moscow Orthodox faith. So, this war has really impacted the religious communities of Ukraine,” he said.
Challenges back home
Back in the U.S., Pavenko is taking on a battle against misinformation within his own political party. He has observed a growing number of far-right politicians repeating Russian propaganda, with some in the GOP echoing Kremlin narratives in recent years. He noted that in April, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene repeated propaganda that Ukraine’s military is overrun with Nazis and white supremacists, despite the country being led by a Jewish president. This rhetoric within the political right frustrates Pavenko.
“Ronald Reagan stood up to the Soviets and won… and others want to make a deal with them. You can’t make a deal with the devil. … The populism and Russian propaganda kind of has infiltrated our party’s base, and it’s definitely playing into Russian hands,” Pavenko said. “The Russian media uses… the extremes of the right to push their narrative.”
Pavenko noted that Kremlin narratives have leaked into local politics in recent years. In a March 2022 interview with the Daily Chronicle, The Reflector’s sister newspaper, Republican Third Congressional District candidate Joe Kent shared views that Pavenko found troubling. Kent condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression but called Putin’s demands, including acknowledging Russia’s claim on Crimea and Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states, “very reasonable.”
“I thank Mr. Kent for his service to our nation, but his foreign policy views are built on isolation, isolationism and appeasement. I wish him only the best in his personal life, I really do,” Pavenko said. “I’m from the Donetsk region, and there are millions of freedom-loving people in that region who are bravely defending their homes and loved ones as we speak. Who gives Joe Kent and others the right to volunteer somebody else’s land to a ‘reasonable thug?’ If that’s not playing into the Russian narrative, I don’t know what is.”
Amid concerns of political misinformation, Pavenko said he hopes that the U.S. will continue to support Ukraine’s defenses financially. Seeing the devastation firsthand, Pavenko firmly believes that long-range missiles are crucial to Ukraine’s defense. However, allies have shied away from supplying these weapons in fear of escalating the conflict, and Putin declared last week that there would be war if NATO countries approve long-range missiles for Ukraine.
“The Russians know that American weaponry, long-range weaponry will not hit their air bases. … We’re basically kind of allowing the Russians one way or form of protection, and the Russians know that we’re not going to hit them without Western weaponry. Meanwhile, they do terror and their planes take off without really any repercussions. Their air bases are still standing, and I think the West needs to allow the Ukrainians to prosecute this war as they see fit. The Ukrainians aren’t asking for our troops, they’re only asking, you know, for military aid,” he said.
Though Ukraine can benefit from stronger weaponry, Pavenko emphasized the significant impact that support from allies like the U.S. has already made. Aid packages, approved with legislative bipartisan support, have been a vital lifeline for Ukraine.
“This aid helps to protect Ukrainian cities from these horrific bombardments. On my behalf, and on behalf of everybody in Ukraine, I wanna just say [a] big thank you, not only to the American politicians, but also the American people. … It allows the Ukrainian military to shut down a large portion of the Russian missiles, which in return saves lives, churches, schools, women’s shelters, hospitals and other places,” Pavenko said.
Pavenko hopes more Americans stay informed about the brutality of Russia’s invasion. He recommends locals follow the news about Ukraine, including from the country’s news sites, many of which offer English translations. Pavenko hopes the war will come to an end soon, in Ukraine’s favor.
“We have a nation here that is trying to find its place and on the sun, right? God’s been with Ukraine since day one. We’re outnumbered, we’re outgunned, but we’re fighting in some areas,” Pavenko said. “We have to retreat in some areas. We’re advancing in some areas of what we’re holding. But in Ukraine, I did not find any resentment or any or any kind of depressed troops. They all understand … this is a fight that we need to finish on our terms and do it right.”
