Pastor Bill Rigsby believes the Struggle for Christendom is being Fought in Ukraine

by Kathryn van der Pol

 “Satan is hell bent on destroying the image of God. And the brightest torch bearers of the image of God on that whole continent are the Ukrainians. Yes, that’s why this is not a war that’s focused on the front lines. It’s focused on killing civilians and destroying churches.”

  ~Pastor Bill Rigsby

 Editor’s Note 1: By popular request, we will show the recent documentary A Faith Under Siege again on August 29 at 6:30 p.m. Rsvp to Kathryn@TexasHeritage.net. In case you haven’t been following this column, the movie tells the story of Ukrainian Christians’ faithful perseverance in face of tremendous Russian persecution. Russians have bombed and destroyed over 650 churches, mostly Protestant, since 2022.

Editor’s Note 2: Welcome to the last chapter of my three-part interview with Bill Rigsby and Ann McCulloch. If you missed the first two installments, keep reading. Each piece stands on its own but do go back and read the others because their story is so compelling and relevant. If this article moves you, would you consider donating to Pastor Bill Rigsby’s ministry? Go here to donate. https://www.knowabletruth.com/donate.

Let’s begin.

Bill Rigsby is a travelling pastor, and Ann McCulloch has served as a missionary for much of her life. Both have been to Ukraine, and their experiences are the subject of this essay.

Ann went there shortly after the “iron curtain” fell in 1991 to evangelize to the Ukrainians who had just become an independent nation for the first time in nearly 70 years.

Pastor Bill has spent 18 months off and on since the 2022 Russian invasion traveling throughout Ukraine, the bulk of his time on the war front, evacuating hundreds of people in danger, ministering to the hungry, the sick, and working with evangelical pastors. In frustration, Bill said, “I’ve delivered many, many hundreds of thousands of dollars of hospital beds and infant baby incubators to maternity wards and clinics, only to have those very clinics targeted and destroyed.”   When he says maternity wards are targeted, he doesn’t mean military hospitals where soldiers are being treated. No. He is talking about $7 million dollar cruise missiles specifically aiming at a maternity clinic. “Yeah, they make sure they get hit accurately.”

Here’s what is remarkable. In spite of the horror of war, Christianity is growing. The seeds that Ann planted so many years ago have become a significant tree. When she visited Ukraine, Protestants were virtually non-existent, and atheism was commonplace. Today, evangelical Christians number 6 percent of the population and are a growing minority. That number translates to two-and-a-half million people out of a population of 40 million. In an earlier essay, I described how Orthodox Ukrainians broke away from their Russian state-controlled church in 2018.[1]

Here are some remarkable facts about these people you should know.

These Protestant evangelicals are mostly young, born after 1991. They grew up in the aftermath of a dying communist regime and have a more western outlook. Bill says, “They are the most unbelievable faithful Christian light on the entire continent.”

When I asked Bill and Ann about A Faith Under Siege, both of them jumped to answer the question.

Ann said, “Everything in the movie A Faith Under Siege was true. The Russian invasion of Ukraine concerns far more than land. If the Ukrainians lose, they’ll lose total freedom. They’re fighting for their faith in God, for lifestyle….”

Bill interrupts, “Yes, the movie is truthful as I know it to be. Some of the people in that movie, some of the pastors, I know personally. They are of the highest integrity. The Ukrainians are fighting for their entire identity as a society, right? Including, their language.”

Those who are older than 35 grew up under the Soviet education system. Russian was the required language for schooling including college, so for nearly all Ukrainians older than 35, Russian is most likely their first language. According to Wikipedia, 83% of Ukrainians in a 2008 Gallup poll preferred to use Russian instead of Ukrainian, but in 2024 that number has changed dramatically. Today, nearly 60% of Ukrainians speak Ukrainian at home.

RUSSIA OBJECTS TO UKRAINIANS SPEAKING UKRAINIAN

Bill agrees that Russian was the forced de facto language of Ukraine under the Soviets. He said, “Ukrainian education was forcibly done in Russian, and education in Ukrainian was forbidden.”

According to my research, before the Russian takeover in 1922, all Ukrainian education in math, science, literature, or history was in Ukrainian. Then the Russians came in and switched it all to Russian. That being the case, the Ukrainian language languished, especially in major cities. Speaking in Ukrainian was greatly frowned upon, yet among farmers, Ukrainian was kept alive. To this day, Russians sneer that Ukrainian is the language of the uneducated.

This language issue has been a major point of contention for Russia.

Ann said the use of Russian was widespread throughout the satellite nations under the Soviet Union. “Last weekend, my friends from Kazakhstan were here. They’re Muslim background believers, and they lived with us for a year and a half, so we know them really well. They grew up under the USSR and were required to speak Russian. So, now they are in their late 40s, but their first language is still Russian. They are just now acclimating to learning Kazakh. They are Christians and belong to a church there. They are able to live in Kazakhstan and maintain a Christian presence, but the impression I have of Ukraine is when the Russians come in, they are going to eliminate all kinds of freedom.”

In 2017, Ukraine passed the Education Reform Act, changing the official language of textbooks, classroom instruction, and college studies from Russian to Ukrainian.

Russia cites this Ukrainian legal reform as one of its reasons to justify its occupation in 2014 of the Donbas, the Crimea, and its 2022 invasion, what Russia terms a special military operation of “liberation.” Russia argues that Russian speakers (which would be everyone over the age of 35 plus), have been oppressed by these recent laws.

Bill said, “Russia hates the education reforms that Ukraine has implemented. The Ukrainians have moved away from what you and I would call propagandized indoctrination about the state and moved to true education in history, language, culture, and science. Since we are Ukrainian, that’s the language we need to teach in. Russia wants people propagandized and indoctrinated. They want them speaking Russian. So Russia goes on this fake news campaign about how Russian language speakers are being persecuted.”

How twisted is the Russian logic! Under the Soviet Union, they would not allow Ukrainian people to speak their own language. If and when they do speak it, they look down on them. So they devise the solution. They will invade to force them to speak Russian again.

According to Bill, in the occupied areas of Ukraine which include portions of the Donbas, the location of Lugansk and Donetsk, Russian language still dominates. Many people here for historical reasons have not adapted to Ukrainian culture.

LENIN’S “HANGING ORDER” AND STALIN’S HOLODOMOR

Here is a brief overview of that history.

Joseph Stalin initiated a great famine in 1930 resulting in the deaths of 10 million Ukrainians.

This famine had been planned by Lenin as early in 1918. The Collected Works of Lenin includes the infamous “hanging order” telegram targeting the “Kulaks,” peasant farmers, who resisted Lenin. He wrote, “You must confiscate the grain and crush the Kulaks with the most ruthless terror.”  Furthermore, he ordered: "Hang (absolutely hang, in full view of the people) no fewer than one hundred known Kulaks, fat cats, and bloodsuckers.”

Many of these Kulaks lived in Ukraine. Lenin justified this cruel policy by framing it as class warfare, claiming that the Kulaks would massacre workers given the chance so the workers must ruthlessly suppress and kill, if necessary, the Kulak minority, leaving no middle course.

How ironic for someone who was supposed to be a man of the people.

Just a few years later, Stalin implemented Lenin’s policy on a demonic and tragic scale.

The Holodomor famine lasted from 1930 to 1931. Stalin’s campaign included the seizure of farms and grain, mass executions, deportations to labor camps, and forced migration. So while Russians did not move into Ukraine because of the Holodomor in an immediate sense, the famine created the conditions that enabled Soviet authorities to reshape Ukraine’s population through state-directed migration and resettlement that affects the demographics today.

PUTIN IS DESPERATE TO CONTROL THE ENTIRE DONBAS

For this reason and more, Russia is desperate to capture all of the Donbas. Currently, the Russians occupy 70% but are demanding the entirety of it in their negotiations with President Trump.

They have other vital strategic reasons for wanting this land. A recent article by Bryony Gooch in The Independent explains.[2] “[Gaining] Donetsk would give Russia control of almost all of the Donbas, the collective name for Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, which has long been coveted by Putin…The Donbas takes its portmanteau name from “Donets Basin”, a further abbreviation of “Donets Coal Basin”, in reference to the coal basin along the Donets Ridge and River.

“The Donbas stretches across the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, two large regions of Ukraine.” Bryony goes on to explain the key strategic position of the Donbas. “The hyper-industrialized Donbas economy is dominated by coal mining and metallurgy. The region has one of the largest coal reserves in Ukraine. When conflict broke out in 2014, Ukraine’s coal-mining enterprises saw a 22.4 percent decline in the production of raw coal compared to 2013, according to the Kyiv Post, showing the country’s reliance on Donbas an energy powerhouse.”

But there is one more strategic gain to Russia if they seize the remaining lands of the Donbas.

“Ukraine is holding a key defensive line across Donetsk,” says Elina Beketova, a fellow for the Centre for European Policy Analysis, describing a “fortified zone buildup over years because the war began there 11 years ago.” She adds that Russia hasn’t been able to break through since 2014 and has lost many people there in the attempt. The entire region is heavily mined, and Ukrainian troops have been preparing it for years.

“She says that losing this fortified line would have ‘catastrophic consequences’ for Ukraine as it holds back Russia’s advancement into central and western parts of the country. The front would shift approximately 80 km west, and Russia would gain open ground – flat steppe with no natural barriers—giving it a direct path toward Kharkiv, Poltava, and Dnipro.”

Zelensky has rejected Putin’s repeated demands to surrender the entire Donbas. Quoting from the same article, Zelensky said, “We will not leave Donbas. We cannot do this. Everyone forgets the first part – our territories are illegally occupied. Donbas for the Russians is a springboard for a future new offensive.”[3]

As mentioned in my earlier essay[4], it is in this land where the Russians bombed and destroyed over 650 churches, mostly Protestant, and murdered 46 pastors, numerous deacons, and elders. So, Russian is the dominant language here; children are kidnapped and taken to Russia by the 1000s, and Protestants are killed if they meet to worship. This is the reality for Ukrainians. How can we not support these people? They don’t want to be part of Russia because they know that they will be wiped off the earth if the Donbas is handed over to Russia.

How do we as American Christians turn our backs?

THE NEW YORK TIMES AND OTHER MEDIA LIED TO AMERICANS

Until A Faith Under Siege was released in May, Americans have been kept in the dark about this current Russian war against Ukrainian Christians. This is a repeat of history. In 1930, Americans were kept deliberately in the dark regarding the great Ukrainian famine known as the “Holodomor” which translates as “death by hunger.”

Americans never knew this history until decades later, even though the truth was known to American officials.

In 1931, a U.S. consular official named A. W. Kliefoth, stationed at the American Embassy in Berlin, documented his conversation with a reporter named Walter Duranty, the Moscow Bureau chief for the New York Times. Duranty was in Berlin visiting the American Embassy to renew his passport. He had come from Moscow where he had been living and reporting for the “Gray Lady.” He wrote a series on the famine, essentially calling it “fake news.”  These articles gave him national fame, earning him and the New York Times the coveted Pulitzer Prize. His articles not only denied the famine occurred but praised Stalin’s leadership. Duranty found no evidence of a “great famine” other than some food shortages. No one was dying en masse, he claimed.

Yet, what he published in the New York Times did not square with what he told Kleifoth.

 KLIEFOTH MEMORANDUM

In his memorandum, Kliefoth reported that Duranty stated his official dispatches were written "in agreement with the New York Times and the Soviet authorities" and would always reflect the official opinion of the Soviet government, not his own personal views. Kliefoth emphasized that the quoted phrase came directly from Duranty. Here a prominent journalist had admitted to promoting Soviet propaganda under a joint agreement with his newspaper and the Soviet government.

This document, known to history as the "Kliefoth Memorandum," is preserved in the National Archives and is considered key evidence by critics who argue Duranty engaged in deliberate deception.[5]

Despite the Kleifoth memorandum, the Pulitzer Prize Board has more than once maintained that there is no "clear and convincing evidence of deliberate deception" and has declined to revoke the award.

So much for the credibility of the Pulitzer Prize Board and the New York Times. I mention this story because this is not the first time that our newspapers have deceived us about Russia. Do you see a pattern?

RUSSIAN CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY- KIDNAPPING 1,000,000 UKRAINIAN CHILDREN

Then Bill begins talking about the Russian war crimes and the more serious higher crime called “crimes against humanity.”  He says, “They target civilians in a genocidal way. They are taking children.”

The documentary, A Faith Under Siege says that as of 2024, the Russians have taken over 19,500 children, but Bill says they are not counting the hundreds of thousands of children that were taken from the Donbas region since 2014. In his estimation, over a million children have been forced into Russia. They are given Russian passports and new identities. A Yale study shows that some of these children are adopted by Russian families.[6] Others go to orphanages. The movie shows a Ukrainian teenager given military training with the expectation of putting him back in the war in Ukraine to fight his own countrymen.

Bill says, “The Russians put the children in camps to indoctrinate them and raise them as Russians. All Putin is doing is creating crimes against humanity every single day. They’re using cluster munitions on playgrounds, targeting schools, targeting civilian hospitals, targeting maternity clinics.”

Just this week, Melania Trump wrote a letter to Vladimir Putin about the children. President Trump hand delivered her letter to Putin when the two met in Alaska. Her main point is “It’s past time to protect these children.” You can read her letter here. [7]

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH DECLARES HOLY WAR AGAINST UKRAINE

I then asked Bill about the Russian Orthodox church’s position on Russia’s “special military operation? Surely, they would object to the kidnapping and forced militarization of Ukrainian children. How can that be called Christian under any interpretation?

“On March 27 of 2024,” Bill says, “Patriarch Kirill, who is the Patriarch of Moscow and leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, issued a statement that this war in Ukraine is officially now being designated as a holy war. Russia has to de-Satanize Ukraine. Any church that does not bow its knee and pledge its allegiance to Patriarch Kirill is deemed to be a satanic church, so all the churches in Ukraine are now satanist churches in his mind.”[8]

Bill goes on to explain that in this decree, Patriarch Kirill states the Russian Doctrine of the Trinity needs to be codified into law.

Well, most American Christians would say that the doctrine of the Trinity is a good thing: God the father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit. “But that’s not the Russian doctrine of the Trinity," Bill explains. "The Russian Doctrine of the Trinity states there are three kinds of Russians: greater Russians who are Russians, lesser Russians who are Ukrainians, and White Russians, referring to Belarussians.” This legalizes discrimination.

As I quoted Bill at the beginning of this essay, “Satan is hell bent on destroying the image of God. And the brightest torch bearers of the image of God on that whole continent are the Ukrainians. Yes, that’s why this is not a war that’s focused on the front lines. It’s focused on killing civilians and destroying churches.”

THE TORCHBEARERS

When I asked Bill to tell me about the “brightest torch bearers,” he told me story after story.

He met one such group of torchbearers towards the beginning of the war in the middle of the night. He had been sent to find women, children, seniors who needed to be evacuated. Some of his first trips were to Kiev while the Russians were still in the process of withdrawing. There was no electricity, so no streetlights. The streets were filled with debris and people were hiding in basements of bombed out buildings. To say it was chaotic would be an understatement. Some of these communities, such as the city of Bucha near the capital, were hit hard. It was just butchered, and that was where Bill drove to first.

Driving his van and equipped with a spotlight, he searches houses. There are no house numbers on a pile of rubble. He knows, however, that there are people here, so he keeps looking. He finds a group of about 20 people huddled in a basement. They have neither food nor water. The oldest man there was in his 60s or 70s. He told Bill that he hadn’t eaten food in sixteen days! The children had not eaten in three days.

These people, though they were literally starving, maintained their kindness and Christian charity. Bill said, “When food began running low, all the men stopped eating and let the women and children have the food. After a few days of that model, some others stopped eating to let the rest of them have the food. And slowly the group of people that were able to eat got down to the children until the food ran out. When I arrived, even the children had not had anything to eat for three days. What a horror!”

Bill had come prepared. He loved to cook, and he had dehydrated individual packages of venison pasta when he was in Brenham. Bill explains, “Before I left the US, I packed an entire suitcase full of these simple carbohydrates with 50% protein, 50% carbs and dehydrated veggies. So it was really easy and quick to add water, boil, and I had those meals with me. In about three minutes, using my jet boiler, I was able to feed this man. I had to put the food in his own mouth because he lacked the strength to do even that. A meal of venison and pasta was easy for him to digest and assimilate in that condition. I’ve never experienced anything like that.’

He gave the group bags of groceries that he had brought, and the women just started “tearing into that and making food.”

After a few trips to Kiev, he met another Ukrainian named Dima who knew construction. Seeing the devastation in Bucha and Moshchun, which had lost over 85% of their buildings, Bill and Dima decided to work together to see if they could help these people construct some structures like tiny homes. Dima stayed in Kiev, while Bill went looking for a place to start and by “divinely orchestrated coincidence” Bill turned onto a little side road leading into the woods to see what was there. He discovered a village and right away met a woman who wanted to start a little humanitarian warehouse next to the mayor’s office. Because the devastation was so terrible, only about ten of the original 250 people were still there.

The lady said, “We need our people to come back, but they don’t have anything, so we need to make a humanitarian warehouse where people can get winter clothes or food.”

Bill asked her for a list and told her he would get the stuff she requested and bring it back. That list was exactly what Bill had in his van. “So she unloaded the van and started her humanitarian warehouse. I went back to Poland to buy generators and working lights because they didn’t have power, gas, water, or anything. I brought back all those things to her and guess who was there? Dima! Dima and I decided it must be divinely orchestrated circumstance that we were to work together. Dima found that same road as I did and turned to see what was there. So that’s where we began building tiny homes.”

Dima and Bill built many tiny homes. “That’s what we did. We started buying the empty shells first and have them delivered. Then we would install them and finish the insides.”

Of course, their work began to be noticed, and demand increased. Again by divine coincidence, Bill had been connected to a network of drug rehab centers. Under normal circumstances, men were required to stay at the center and not allowed to work, but Bill was able to talk to the director.

He said, “Look, the best rehab for these guys is to get them focused on serving others. You get them to think outside themselves. You’ve got carpenters, electricians, and plumbers. I can use those guys if you will release a number of them to me on a daily basis. I’ll supervise them and put them to work building these tiny houses.” The director agreed.

Some of those guys were the most amazing Christian brothers that Bill had ever met. Today, he stays in touch with these men, some of whom are working in Kyrgyzstan building churches. “I was just speaking with them this morning. They said, ‘People came to Ukraine from a long way away to help us when we needed help, and now that’s what we’ve got to do’”

Bill added, “God said, ‘Go and make disciples,’ and that’s what they are doing.”

That’s what all of us should be doing.

THE FUTURE

In October, Bill will return to Ukraine for an indefinite period. No matter what happens with negotiations, the Ukrainian people will need help; pastors will need support, and now Bill has a “family” of friends to check on. I asked Bill what he thinks would be the best outcome for Ukraine.

He replied, “Russia would just pick up all their toys and go home. Leave. Period. I realize that I am fantasizing. But something that Americans don’t recognize is that in 1994 under the Budapest Memorandum, but Russia, the United States, and Great Britain all agreed to respect the then sovereign borders of Ukraine and recognize Ukrainian independence. And we entered into defense covenants much like Article V of the NATO charter. WE agreed to protect Ukraine against any incursion. So, Russia has violated all of that. So what they have done is immoral, illegal and in violation of a number of written accords, most prominently the Budapest Memorandum.[9]

“You know, war has rules. For example, the Geneva Convention has rules about not kidnapping children, not making civilians the target.”

Bill explained that the Russians were sending three waves of hundreds of drones every day, hitting 95% civilian targets. These go all over the country even far western Ukraine. Only 5% are aimed at military targets. They are extremely accurate and are aimed at apartments, schools, churches, and hospitals. The first attack wave carries incendiary explosives. This results in first responders like fire fighters coming out. Then the next wave, the drones are loaded up with weapons packed with metal shards, the intent to maim or kill the first responders in addition to the residents. Then the third wave of drones carries the big explosives that just destroy the building. Three attacks for each structure, all targeted at civilians. This is a gross violation of human rights, the Geneva Convention, and any understanding of rules of war.

He said, “Here’s a man on our planet, Putin, who is targeting humanity, the most vulnerable people, children, and if we don’t do anything about it, that’s a pox on us.”

Let this not be a pox on us. Putin is lying about the Ukrainian heritage and language, persecuting Christians, kidnapping children, targeting civilians for death, violating the Budapest Memorandum and the Geneva Conventions. Do something to help the people of Ukraine. Support Bill’s ministry at KnowableTruth.com. Support Samaritan Purse. Write our Congressman Michael McCaul or Senator Ted Cruz. Even write our President. Do not be silent.

I will close with this quote believed to be by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

As always, I welcome your comments. Email me at Kathryn@TexasHeritage.net.

[1] “What Happens to a Rider who Takes a Long Bike Ride and Finds a Russian Jewelry Box,” Happenings on the Way to Heaven, https://www.happeningsonthewaytoheaven.com/post/what-happens-to-a-writer-who-takes-a-long-bike-ride-and-finds-a-russian-jewelry-box

[2] The Independent, Sunday, August 17.  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/donbas-russia-ukraine-putin-zelensky-trump-donetsk-b2809102.html

[3] Ibid.

[4] “What Happens to a Rider who Takes a Long Bike Ride and Finds a Russian Jewelry Box,” Happenings on the Way to Heaven, https://www.happeningsonthewaytoheaven.com/post/what-happens-to-a-writer-who-takes-a-long-bike-ride-and-finds-a-russian-jewelry-box

[5] Kliefoth Memorandum: https://johndietrichbooks.blogspot.com/2013/07/kleifoth-memo.html

[6] Yale Study Fact Sheet: Russia's Kidnapping and Re-education of Ukraine's Children

https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/fact-sheet-russias-kidnapping-and-re-education-of-ukraines-children/

[7] Melania’s Letter to Putin:  https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/08/read-it-here-first-lady-melania-trumps-peace/

[8] “What Happens to a Rider who Takes a Long Bike Ride and Finds a Russian Jewelry Box,” Happenings on the Way to Heaven, https://www.happeningsonthewaytoheaven.com/post/what-happens-to-a-writer-who-takes-a-long-bike-ride-and-finds-a-russian-jewelry-box

[9] Budapest Memorandum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum