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Russians Rain Down Death on Ukrainians as Talks Continued

25 August 2025

Kharkiv, Ukraine

We were racing down a shell-pocked road with the woods on fire on both sides of us in Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine. Russian artillery and missiles were hitting all around us, but our main threat was the new fiber optic guided FPV drones. Alex, a volunteer chaplain, was behind the wheel of his Land Rover going as fast as he could to make us a less of a target. He told us how he had witnessed the destructive power of the drones to wipe out an entire vehicle of people. He himself had been chased by one Russian drone during an evacuation of civilians, and he had narrowly outrun it.

On this day, we’d been asked to go to a small village within a mile and a half of the advancing Russian military. There were some families that had not yet evacuated but now wanted to leave. When we got to them, we found it was a woman, her husband, and two other men. At first, the woman did not want to leave, but with the sounds of rockets and missiles striking around us, and the destruction of her neighbors’ homes, we were able to encourage her that where there is life, there is hope, and that we prayed one day she could come back. If she stayed, she would most likely die. In tears, she agreed and came with one of the men, but two decided to stay to evacuate more of their belongings.

We went further down the road, where we were told a lady was still in her home. As we drove down to this next place, we were looking at our drone monitor, and we picked up a Russian drone, with the viewpoint of the pilot, coming into our area. We sped up, swerved, and turned down a side road, and the drone disappeared, hitting a different target. We got to the home, and we could tell someone had been there and was still living there. There was a friendly black dog tied up outside on a chain. As soon as the dog saw us, he began to bark and wag his tail. Sahale approached the dog, and it leaped into her arms. She cuddled him and held him, and he whined and was very happy. We looked around for a moment, beeped the horn, and called out for the lady, but there was no response. Alex said, “Well, we’ll come back again later, but right now, we can’t stay.” We beeped the horn more and called out again. I asked if we could unchain the dog just in case the lady didn’t come back. and Alex said, “No, she’ll be back. She’s a farmer here and doesn’t really want to leave, but we’ll get her out of here later. Right now, we have to take the other people we have and get out now.”

We prayed for the dog, hugged, petted it, and felt really bad leaving it; we hoped that its master would come home and that it could leave if the Russians kept advancing. We took the woman and man with us  back to a safer area where they could stay with relatives. However, there’s nowhere safe in Ukraine. That night, two missiles came in right over the building we were staying in. One landed within 200 yards, showering our building with rocks, killing a person, and wounding another. It would have killed more, but most people had already run away.

Those Russian attacks killed seven people, including a baby who was only a few months old, and wounded at least 19 more in an attack on an apartment complex. Throughout that night, there were heavy attacks by Russian Shahed drones, Eskandar weapons systems, glide bombs, and missiles. We found out later that it was the biggest combined attack in the last month and a half, as talks continued between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, followed by those between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. People were killed in different towns all over Ukraine, not just in the place we were at. Even though the Russians have not been able to advance very quickly, they’ve made incremental progress, and they continue their attacks day and night.

Since the invasion of February 24, 2022, Russia has lost more than one million military casualties, Ukraine has lost more than 400,000 military casualties, and more than 60,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed or wounded. 11 million people have been displaced in Ukraine with more than 6.9 million fleeing to other countries.

Our team had come to Ukraine to keep a promise: to stand with the people here. We had been invited a few years ago by Julia, a young Ukrainian woman who married one of our volunteers, Kingsley. “Don’t feed your fear, feed your faith,” she had reminded us. We had come to give help, hope, love, medical support, medical training, and help with relief supplies, generators, power banks, and vehicles that could be used for transporting people as ambulances.

Our role and presence here is very small, as our main effort is still in Burma and the Middle East. One of the highlights of the trip was worshiping with Pastor Yuri in a Ukrainian church. The worship band that day was led by Pastor Mark, who is the son of one of Ukraine’s leading pastors. It was beautiful. Mark was a prisoner of the Russians in the early days of the war, and his church was taken over by them. The cross was torn down, and is now used by the military. Through a miracle, Mark and his family were able to escape, and now he serves people all over Ukraine. The congregation was much smaller than it was before the war, but he still faithfully worships God.

They had a special communion for soldiers, and we got to know some of them. We visited them to see how we could help. We bought supplies for the local police force, whose numbers keep dropping. Sergei, one of our friends from an earlier mission, is a police officer there. His wife was killed by the Russians on the third week of the invasion, and it’s always heartbreaking to be with him. “My men are dying like a conveyor belt,” he told us. “It’s not just my men, the police, but it’s also soldiers, and even civilians, who are dying all over Ukraine. It’s like a conveyor belt of bodies, but we’re not going to give up. I cling to Jesus every day.”

We were struck by people all over Ukraine, who are calling out to God and affirming their faith, in spite of all they’ve seen. “Our only hope is Jesus, and so we call on His name,” they told us. “Please tell the Americans not to abandon us. This is not just a war for Ukrainian people who’ve suffered an evil invasion. It’s for freedom of faith here, and freedom for everyone all over the world. Thank you so much for what you have done for us, and please thank Christians in America for praying for us.”

We went to an area outside of Pokrovsk on one of the last days. It’s an area of Russian advance, with very heavy fighting. The fighting isn’t limited to that area, though, because the Russian special forces have made incursions deep behind the lines. We went to see a town that only three weeks ago had much of its population still in it. Since then, there have been almost daily missile and rocket strikes. On the morning we arrived, there were glide bombs and Shahed drones that hit the town. There were also Russian infiltration units nearby, and there were ongoing clashes to try to push them back. We went in with Alex again, along with a Ukrainian soldier, to document what was taking place. FBR team member Sky and my son Pete went to take the video. Pete monitored the drone scanner because of the constant threat of FPV drones.

Going through that town was like seeing the end of the world. We felt both the sadness of the loss, and the fear of being added to the losses. After this, we headed back to Kiev, and passed a large field of sunflowers. There are sunflowers everywhere in Ukraine. They are beautiful, and a symbol of hope. We got out to take a photo and record a video to encourage people to keep praying for, and helping, the Ukrainians. Some of our team stayed back to continue to help, while others of us are headed back for Burma missions. Thank you so much for praying for, and helping, the people of Ukraine. They need it. We pray for the Russians to leave Ukraine, for freedom, and for reconciliation between the Ukrainians and Russians in Jesus’ name.

May God bless you all in Jesus’ name.

Dave, family, and the Free Burma Rangers