As Trump looms, Ukraine turns to its evangelicals to woo the Republicans

Ukraine has the largest evangelical community in Europe and its outreach to Republicans could prove crucial in securing additional American aid.

September 10, 2024 at 3:00 a.m. EDT

KYIV --- Last June, some 800 political and religious leaders gathered in a refurbished 19th century armory in central Kyiv for the annual National Prayer Breakfast — an event borrowed from the American political calendar, that normally fails to attract top political names despite being more than a decade old.

This year was different, however. President Volodymyr Zelensky himself took part --- the first time for a Ukrainian head of state — while U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and former vice president Mike Pence sent video messages that were aired at the event, which is organized by Ukraine’s evangelical Christians.

“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken,” Zelensky said, quoting the Book of Ecclesiastes [4:12] in his call for Ukrainian unity.

His attendance at the prayer breakfast demonstrated the growing realization among Ukraine’s leaders of the need to forge close ties with the country’s evangelical Christians, who number between 800,000 and 1 million. The government is betting that its own evangelicals can be a bridge to their counterparts in the United States, who are influential in the Republican Party and could assist in their lobbying efforts for more aid.

This outreach could prove crucial in the coming months, as Ukrainian officials lobby for additional American aid to thwart Russian advances and try to blunt anti-Ukrainian narratives within the Republican Party.

Officials say that the work of their evangelicals building ties with Republican leaders and voters is crucial --- although they emphasize that the evangelicals also reach out to Democrats.

“You can call this synergy --- they advocate what’s important to them, which is also important to us,” said one Ukrainian official speaking on the condition of anonymity, since he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press. “They really, really help us.”

This assistance will definitely come in handy in case of a victory by Donald Trump and his Kyiv-critical running mate JD Vance, the official added. “But even if he doesn’t win, the Republicans will have a significant number of people in Congress.”

Vance said in a podcast in 2022 that “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other."

Ukrainian officials estimate their country has the largest population of evangelicals in Europe. “Ukraine is the ‘Bible Belt’ of Eastern Europe,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak wrote in the American media outlet the Hill in April. Their numbers exploded in the wake the religious vacuum that emerged after the Soviet Union’s fall.

In the United States, it’s an important community for the Republican Party with exit polls in the 2016 and 2020 elections indicating that between 37 percent and 46 percent of Trump voters identified as White evangelical Christians, with Johnson and Pence among its more prominent members. In 2020, 76 percent of White evangelicals voted for Trump.

Pavlo Unguryan, Ukrainian evangelical minister and community leader who helped start the prayer breakfast, explained that his church plays an important role outside the country, “especially for, let’s say, quiet diplomacy and unofficial diplomacy.”

This unofficial diplomacy served Ukraine well at the beginning of the year when a coalition of political and civil society actors --- in which Ukrainian evangelicals played a significant role — helped overcome Republican opposition to provide Ukraine with $61 billion in desperately needed military assistance.

Johnson’s speech at the June prayer breakfast marked his continuing evolution on the subject of support for Ukraine, going from opposing military aid to becoming one of its staunchest allies.

“We pray for the continued strength of the Ukrainian forces, the safety of the Ukrainian people and lasting peace in your homeland,” Johnson said in his video remarks at the event in Kyiv.

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