Ukrainians in war-torn Bakhmut get Bibles at Orthodox Christmas 

The town of Bakhmut lies at the heart of the Ukrainian war. Russian forces are just a mile away. Since the summer, they have been trying to take the town, but it still hasn’t fallen.  

Buildings are devastated. The few thousand people remaining live in their basements. But most of the original 50,000 inhabitants have fled. There is the constant sound of shelling. 

In the run-up to the Orthodox Christmas last weekend, our colleagues from the Ukrainian Bible Society went to Bakhmut, taking Bibles, sleeping bags, food and medical supplies.  

Anatoliy Raychynets, deputy general secretary of the Ukrainian Bible Society, said, ‘What people want more than physical help is spiritual support. We are bringing hope to places where people are suffering.’ 

The journey, which would normally have taken a couple of hours, took 1.5 days.  

The BBC’s James Waterhouse described traveling to Bakhmut as ‘like dropping off a cliff of civilisation’ with the background sound of ‘constant bangs of incoming artillery’. 

With no ceasefire, there was no peace in Bakhmut over the Orthodox Christmas. But the work of bringing the biblical message of peace goes on.