The southern Ukrainian city of Kherson is one of the country’s most dangerous cities. Russian troops are stationed just across the Dnieper river, and simple errands require Presbyterian pastor Volodymyr Barishnev to do some careful planning before he walks out his front door.
Each morning, 32-year-old Barishnev checks the city’s Telegram channel for reports of Kremlin drones and shelling. He maps his route accordingly and always brings his drone detector—a small black device that beeps louder when a drone approaches.
“Every day is a big test,” Barishnev told Christianity Today. “Words cannot express how we feel here.”
Just last month, Russia hit a local sports arena with four glide bombs. The bombing destroyed the sports facility and left one person dead and multiple people injured. The attacks are so frequent, Barishnev said, that silence is unnerving. It makes people feel that Kremlin troops are gearing up for a larger assault.
The people of the region are bracing themselves this week, waiting for something to shift.
United States secretary of state Marco Rubio said this week is “very critical” for America as it decides how much more effort it will pour into negotiations. Kyiv signed an agreement last week granting the US access to minerals, which may encourage President Donald Trump to feel more invested in Ukraine’s success, stability, and sovereignty.
Yet if Russian president Vladimir Putin gets his way, the region of Kherson and its capital, also called Kherson, will become part of Russia. Kremlin troops currently occupy 75 percent of the region, and in 2022, Russia officials claimed it as “forever” Russian territory. Putin is currently insisting that a cease-fire deal give Russia not only all the land its soldiers have seized since the invasion but also complete control of four regions it only partly occupies, according to Bloomberg news.
If America agrees to that maximalist position, things would be bad for Holy Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church, Barishnev said.
Kremlin forces have shut down churches that are not part of the Russian Orthodox Church and have forced Christian leaders to flee. About a quarter of the 40 members of Barishnev’s congregation continued to meet when Russian troops last occupied his city. But he said many people in the city were seized, detained, and even tortured. The son of a Pentecostal bishop who is a friend of his spent 100 days in captivity. He said the Russians tried to force his friend’s son to speak favorably about the occupation of Kherson.
About 75 percent of people in Kherson have fled. More might leave if it looks like America will grant Putin’s demands.
“Members of our church are worried about what is happening, and it’s affecting their health,” Barishnev said. “They are waiting for the victory of Ukraine to come.”
Victory doesn’t seem to be on the negotiating table, though. The Kremlin is demanding recognition of its 2014 annexation of Crimea, all the current territory it controls, and some it does not. The territorial gains give Moscow access to strategic Black Sea ports, threatening Ukrainian sovereignty over shipping lanes.
Land concessions remain a key sticking point in US-led efforts to negotiate a peace deal, frustrating Trump’s mission to end the war quickly.
The administration’s latest proposal for a peace deal gives Russia a litany of wins: Ukraine agrees not to join NATO, the Kremlin keeps the 20 percent of Ukrainian territory it currently occupies, and the US recognizes Moscow’s sovereignty over Crimea. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected it.
“There is nothing to talk about,” Zelensky said. “This is our territory, the territory of Ukraine.”
Last month, US special envoy Steve Witkoff told talk show host Tucker Carlson that the Russians are “de facto in control” of the occupied regions and that its residents voted in favor of Russian annexation during a referendum vote.
But both claims are false, Barishnev noted. Ukrainian forces freed the city and about a quarter of the region. He remembers the celebrations in the streets as Russian troops retreated.
People voted in a referendum in September 2022, but Western observers recognized it as a “sham.” Barishnev said voting took place after most of the region’s residents had fled and Russian troops with machine guns “went from apartment to apartment and sat on the street near the markets,” intimidating people to vote in favor of Russian annexation.
Even if a negotiated deal were to freeze Russian gains along the current frontlines, some population centers in Ukraine would remain dangerously close to Russian firing lines. Kyiv wants assurances that Putin won’t rearm and continue its land grabs as it did in the wake of the 2014–2015 cease-fire agreement.
Barishnev said a second Russian occupation of his region would be disastrous for his city’s residents. More people would probably flee. He’s not sure what would be left of his church if they did—or if they didn’t, and tried to continue worshiping under Russian occupation.
But continuing as they are now, living, working, and praying in a war zone, also feels impossible.
“Psychologically you just can’t do anything,” Barishnev said. “It’s hard to explain what’s going on inside. … You just want to drop everything and run away somewhere.”
He points to Isaiah 6:8 as the reason he decided to stay, enduring months of Russian occupation and years of deadly assaults on his city. Like Isaiah, he said he heard God asking, Whom will I send? Who will go for us? He committed to serve as a shepherd in this city.
He tries not to dwell on the drones, glide bombs, and constant shelling, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to avoid them. He hears the drone detector he always carries beeping. There have been so many close calls, like the time he made a quick stop on the way to the train station and got there just after an attack that killed 23 people.
“It was a real miracle from God we were late,” Barishnev said. “Every day is a small story about how God protects and preserves his people.”
