War in Ukraine: Links to The Christian Chronicle’s coverage
The number of Churches of Christ in Ukraine once rivaled…
A protest of bears
Christians from Ukraine and the U.S. march on Washington in memory of at least 600 children killed in Russia’s invasion.
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WASHINGTON — Six hundred white and brown teddy bears — many holding small blue-and-yellow flags — sat in symmetrical rows near the Washington Monument, the 555-foot obelisk that honors America’s first president.
Under a gray Friday afternoon sky, seven Ukrainian women braved cold, gusty winds as they took turns reading the names and ages of children killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began 34 months ago.
Related: War in Ukraine: Links to The Christian Chronicle’s coverage
Artem, Yehor and Kyrylo — ages 15, 10 and 5 — were probably brothers. Nikol died at 13 months. Rodyna, listed as “unborn,” likely perished with his mother. The plaintive ringing of a small bell, mounted on a small, wooden platform surrounded by Ukrainian flags, followed each name.
In all, the seven women read 356 names. They could have read many more — if only the names were known. At least 600 children have died since the start of the conflict on Feb. 24, 2022.
The somber litany formed the emotional centerpiece of “Remember the Children of Ukraine,” a day-after-Thanksgiving observance to honor the children “killed, wounded, displaced, or orphaned” since the 2022 start of the Russian invasion, according to Rescue Ukraine, the nonprofit that organized the event.
Olga Tkachenko works with other Ukrainian and American Christians to place 600 bears in rows near the Washington Monument.
Jeff Abrams directs the Alabama-based ministry that has worked in Ukraine for 30 years. Formerly minister for the Tuscumbia Church of Christ, Abrams recently stepped down from the pulpit to work full time with Rescue Ukraine.
Abrams and a group of more than 40 people traveled 15 hours by bus from Tuscumbia to reach the nation’s capital. Most were Ukrainian Christians displaced by the conflict. Others were U.S. church members passionate about Ukraine. Additional demonstrators came from places including Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Tennessee and Washington state.
‘It’s almost like a message from God’
The bears caught some eyes.
Media outlets arrived and mounted cameras on tripods. Passers-by stopped and asked about the display. Some posed for photos with the bears. A few even helped stuff the bears in black plastic bags after the ceremony for eventual shipment to Ukraine.
Abrams has traveled to Ukraine countless times since the 1990s. In September, as he helped Ukrainian Christians relocate from the front lines, he saw many stuffed animals commemorating the loss of children. In Kharkiv, a city just a few miles from the Russian border, a teddy bear honored the memory of a girl named Sophia who died in a missile strike as she sat on a park bench.
In another war-torn city, Dnipro, “I saw this big mound of teddy bears,” Abrams said. “It’s almost like a message from God. This is … the symbol that you need to use to communicate.”
“I saw this big mound of teddy bears. It’s almost like a message from God. This is … the symbol that you need to use to communicate.”
With the bears and the Washington Monument as backdrop, speakers portrayed the brutality of the Russian invasion, singers performed the Ukrainian songs, and two young violinists performed a beloved Ukrainian composition.
Behind the teddy bears, some 15 group members braved the cold to hold a long banner reading “Remember the children of Ukraine killed by Russia.”
Seven Ukrainian women take turns reading the names and ages of children killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began 34 months ago.
Following a saxophone rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and an a cappella performance of the state anthem of Ukraine, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, powerfully denounced the suffering of Ukrainian children.
Since 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and pro-Russian separatists seized power in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, “there is not a war crime that Russia did not commit in Ukraine,” Markarova said. “But what they do to Ukrainian children is probably the most despicable of the crimes.”
“There is not a war crime that Russia did not commit in Ukraine. But what they do to Ukrainian children is probably the most despicable of the crimes.”
Besides the 600 children who have died since February 2022, more than 1,420 have suffered injuries, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office. Nearly a quarter of school-age children are unable to attend classes in person.
Markarova also decried the forced deportation of Ukrainian children, echoing other officials who maintain that Russia has forcibly transferred thousands of youths to its territory, according to the U.N.
Bears placed near the Washington Monument represent more than 600 Ukrainian children killed in Russia’s invasion.
The ambassador thanked Abrams and the event organizers for giving voice to the children forever silenced. “I know that God will hear all of our prayers,” she said. The day “will come when we will be standing here … saying ‘thank you’ and praising the peace that came.”
Christmas is the holiday of hope, Markarova said. “It’s the holiday that tells us that light always wins.”
Devastated, suffocated and angry
Tuscumbia church member Viktor Semikoz led the Ukrainian anthem and a song called “Prayer for Ukraine,” which he described as a petition for God’s help — and a vehicle of hope.
“When I was singing, I felt a deep sense of responsibility,” said Semikoz, who studied accordion during his college years in Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine where some of the bloodiest infantry fighting since World War II occurred before it fell to the Russians in May 2023.
“I also thought about the future when there will be no earth as we know it, and we will be with God, and there will be no more wars or suffering.”
“I thought about every word I sang,” said Semikoz, a church song leader for nearly 25 years, with help from interpreter Kate Hladkykh. “I also thought about the future when there will be no earth as we know it, and we will be with God, and there will be no more wars or suffering.”
For Hladkykh, one of five Tuscumbia church members who read the names of children during the ceremony, the experience was overwhelming.
Related: Where is God in a war zone?
“At the same time I feel … just devastated and also feel angry,” she said. Each name represents “a life full of potential, just cut short by this terrible violence.”
Another reader, Julia Kachuk, fled the fighting with her daughter and now worships with the Tuscumbia church.
Hanna Michshenko wears a heart in the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
“The most painful thing (was) to voice the names of unborn children,” Kachuk said. “It suffocates so much that there is nothing to breathe, and there is no strength to move on.”
Finding the names of the children required detective work. Church member Hanna Michshenko combed news services and social media for months for references to the deaths containing concrete information such as name, age and place of death. Michshenko, 19, cried continuously as she compiled the list — especially when she came across a 14-year-old girl also named Hanna Michshenko and when she found children who died on her birthday or her mom’s.
Bears for Russians
After the ceremony, Abrams and about 20 others boarded a bus and rode to the Russian embassy. Using blue-and-yellow ribbons, the group tied a banner declaring “Russia murders children” to the embassy gate above five of the ceremony’s white bears sprinkled with a red dye, symbolizing blood.
“Can I give you one of these bears?” Abrams asked Russian officials through a talkbox at the gate, as members of the group translated his request into Russian. “We’re Christians; we want to give these bears to Russia.”
Jeff Abrams and fellow Christians hold a banner and bears stained with red paint symbolizing blood outside the Russian embassy.
Soon, an officer wearing a U.S. Secret Service emblem approached the group and asked them to remove the banner and the bears.
The group completed the day’s commemoration at the Embassy of Ukraine, where it held a banner reading “Remember the children of Ukraine” while posing for a photo on the front steps.
Related: Ukrainian refugees prepare a special Thanksgiving feast to show gratitude to Texas Christians
For Hladkykh, the events in Washington served as a proclamation.
In a world growing numb to war, she said, “I think we’re preaching a very powerful message.”
Earlier in the day, with Ukrainian children’s names still ringing in the audience’s ears, Abrams asked for God’s intervention to end the bloody conflict in Ukraine.
Christians hold teddy bears, some with names, representing killed Ukrainian children outside the Russian embassy in Washington.
“Touch the hearts of those that can stop this war,” he prayed. “There’ve been too many tears, too many that have died.
“And we beg you, God, stop this war. Bring peace to Ukraine.”
TED PARKS is a Nashville-based correspondent for The Christian Chronicle. A contributor to the Chronicle since the 1990s, he teaches Spanish at Lipscomb University. To offer feedback on this story, contact [email protected].
