Kremlinism/Anti-Christianity
Evangelical
Jehovah’s Witnesses
christmas carols
Anathema to the Russians Who Desecrated My Church in Mariupol
The Russians have desecrated my church in Mariupol. After destroying my city, wiping it off the face of the earth, killing over 100,000 people, committing genocide, and covering the city with corpses—including my friends, parishioners, and relatives—Putin’s men have now turned the building of my "Church of Good Changes" into the "Komsomolets" cinema. They are celebrating this, producing propaganda materials, and boasting about how Mariupol is supposedly being "reborn."
Our community, the "Church of Good Changes," purchased this building in 2016. With the efforts of our parishioners, we restored order in what had been a filthy and abandoned former cinema, right in the center of Mariupol. The premises were renovated by our Protestant, Reformed Church, consecrated (which is worth emphasizing), and used both for worship services and for various social projects of the church.
During the blockade and genocide of Mariupol, our church became one of the city's largest bomb shelters—certainly the most "comfortable" (if such a word can even be used) in the midst of the Russian hell that descended upon Ukraine. While entire buildings nearby were being erased by airstrikes, children in the basement of our church were watching cartoons on a projector, participating in contests, and even receiving gifts. In that bomb shelter, in the basement of my Church of Good Changes, thousands of people found refuge, protection from shelling, food, and medical assistance.
My son, the ministers of our church, and the team of the "Mariupol Chaplain Battalion" organized an unprecedented large-scale evacuation of those hiding in our bomb shelter, in my former video studio. It was from there, from our church, that the first large evacuation convoy with women and children was organized and successfully broke through the Russian blockade.
The daring breakthrough was led by my adopted son, a former Mariupol street child, Artem Alifirenko, and Mariupol's main toastmaster, my friend and colleague Askold Kvyatkovsky. In the basement of the church, the leading "mother" and caretaker was the brave sister of our "Mariupol Chaplain Battalion," director Olga Butrimova. Many ministers from our Christian community took an active part in rescuing children, women, and the elderly of Mariupol within our church building.
More than 8,000 people—a record number for our city—were evacuated by us from the tightening ring of Putin's genocide. Our church, located not far from the tragically infamous Mariupol Drama Theater, which was bombed by the Russians, became a place of heroism, faith, hope, and salvation—not just in a spiritual sense.
The building was hit multiple times by Russian shells, mortars, and Grad rockets, but EVERYONE—let me emphasize, EVERYONE—who made it to the church survived. And EVERYONE who was there before the Russian occupiers broke into the building was successfully evacuated. Only one person, among those who reached our church, was lost. He had stepped outside for some reason, was wounded, and by the time he was brought back, he could not be saved. We buried him right next to the church during a brief pause in the shelling. Another elderly man passed away on the way to evacuation—his heart simply stopped.
All the others—more than 8,000 Mariupol residents who made it to our church—we managed to save. And this was while hell raged around the church. The surroundings, the yards next to the church, were literally covered with human corpses.
Forgive me, but due to YouTube censorship and out of basic human decency, I will not show you these horrific images. At times, our evacuation convoys, led by my son, had to pass through minefields. Artem and Askold would take the lead vehicle, warning the drivers behind them that if they were to be blown up, the convoy should turn back to the city. But God spared them. Again and again, they returned alive, each time risking their lives to the extreme. Praying and fasting (they refused to eat during the evacuation missions), they rescued yet another group of Mariupol residents.
Today, our church has been defiled in the most vile and blasphemous way. It has been given back its satanic name—“Komsomolets.” For those who, thank God, no longer remember what that means, let me translate: “Young Communist.”
This demonic name, a symbol of a criminal, diabolical ideology, has been engraved on the facade of my Church of Good Changes. “Komsomolets.” That one fact says everything to the madmen who still believe that Putin is a “pro-Christian” leader. The Kremlin usurper and dictator is an Antichrist in every sense of the word.
More than 700 churches in Ukraine have been destroyed by his rockets and shells. Dozens of priests have been murdered. Tens of thousands of parishioners from our churches have perished. Thirty percent of the contacts in my phone book no longer respond. The flesh, blood, and bones of my friends have been mixed by Putin’s forces with the concrete of the ruined buildings. The pieces of my daughter’s body that neighbors managed to collect were simply buried near her home.
In the territories occupied by Putin, freedom has been completely eradicated—including, first and foremost, the greatest and most precious of all freedoms: the Freedom of Faith. Just as in Hitler’s time, if you are not willing to sing Hallelujah to Putin while remaining silent about the blood he spills, then you have no chance to believe, to serve, or to preach. Only those churches that have bowed before the Kremlin vampire are allowed to sing their Hosannas, but even then, they are required to praise the Kremlin more than God.
The world must know that churches in Ukraine are not only being destroyed by the Russians—they are being demonstratively desecrated.
Throughout the ages, whenever the Church faced something so openly diabolical, it responded with a short, simple, yet profoundly consequential word. Today, I will say it as well—Anathema.
The Bible says: “Cursed is the one who strikes down his neighbor in secret!” And let all the people say: Amen!
For those who live far away and may not fully understand what is happening in Ukraine, let me make it clear: this is not just a war over land, nor is it about gas, oil, or rare earth metals. This is not an ethnic conflict between Russian and Ukrainian speakers (I have spoken Russian all my life and never had any problems because of it).
This is Ukraine’s war for the Freedom of Faith, for Christian Values, for Freedom of Conscience, and the Freedom to Preach. To put it simply, this is a war for the Church. Ukraine is fighting against the desecrators of the Temple of God—against those who seek to turn the Church into a parody, a den of robbers, against those who bring the Abomination of Desolation into the minds, souls, and hearts of people. This is a war for the purity and holiness of the Church. And in the case of my church in Mariupol, this has been demonstrated in an especially vivid and symbolic way.
My name is Gennadiy Mokhnenko. I am a Protestant bishop, the pastor of the Church of Good Changes in Mariupol—a church that has been captured, destroyed, and desecrated by the Russians.
Anathema to you—both Old and Young Communists! Cursed be you, Putin’s murderers, destroyers, and desecrators of churches—Komsomol members.
