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What is the situation for evangelical churches in the country right now?

Well, right now it's quite free. It is not bad. But what we are afraid of is that if these people, the prime minister and the pro-Russian government, come in, they have threatened to clamp down on the evangelical "sects and cults." That is where the fear is. A pastor friend of mine was told to support the prime minister, and he said he would not. So they said, "After the election when we win, we'll close down your church." And that could happen to any one of us.

What do you expect will happen, and what should happen?

Well, we feel we have [experienced] victory already. The country [has seen] victory in the sense that the judiciary is refusing to follow the tones of the presidency. The judiciary was able to say, "No, they have to re-run the elections." That's a major victory, because, normally, all the arms of government would fight the people and would all be together. But now the Supreme Court has ruled that the election has to be re-run. We feel that definitely the opposition candidate, Victor Yuschenko, will win, but we need to be prayed for because … the other [side] might take their own people to the streets, also, and that could really paralyze the country. So, we're in a very sensitive, very difficult time—the most difficult time in our history.

Some have said that Putin would rather die than allow a pro-Western government in the Ukraine, which is the largest country [in the region] outside of Russia. It's the largest neighbor that Russia has. To them, it would be like suicide. So he would never allow the opposition to win. And so we need all the help we can. Only God knows how serious the situation is. We need the Western people to keep on [making known] their support, voicing their support, that this is not just a Ukrainian thing, that we are not isolated, that it's not just the ordinary people who don't have any political strength that are trying to stand and win their rights. The Russians have to know that, no, the whole world is watching and the whole Christian world is watching. We need as much prayer as possible from every quarter.

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News elsewhere on the upcoming election re-run in the Ukraine include:

Putin Agrees to Respect Ukraine Election Result | Russian President Vladimir Putin said he will respect the result of the rerun second round of the Ukrainian presidential election on Dec. 26. and sees no problem if opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko wins. (Bloomberg, Dec. 21)

Campaigning gets tough in Ukraine election re-run | Campaigning for coming Sunday's re-run of the second and final round of Ukraine's presidential election is hotting up. (Radio Netherlands, Netherlands, Dec. 21)

Righting Wrongs in Ukraine | Should he win his hard-fought campaign to become Ukraine's president on Sunday, what should reformer Viktor Yushchenko do about Ukraine's outgoing president, the autocratic Leonid Kuchma? (Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 21)

Yushchenko convoy turned away from eastern Ukrainian city by supporters of prime minister | Supporters of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko traveling in a convoy of 50 orange-draped cars ran into a roadblock of his rival's backers Tuesday and failed to carry their campaign into this industrial city -- a center of opposition to Yushchenko. (Associated Press, Dec. 21)

Ukraine Presidential Candidates Meet in Televised Debate | Ukraine's two presidential candidates hold a contentious televised debate. Monday's eagerly awaited encounter came just six days before this Sunday's court-ordered run-off election. The two had never met before in public. (World, npr, Dec. 21)

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December (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48