ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (BP) — The city of Zaporizhzhia is vulnerable to Russian attack, adjacent to cities in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast and a treasured nuclear power plant Russia captured since renewing its assault on Ukraine in February 2022.

As recently as Jan. 8, a Russian airstrike killed at least 13 and injured another 113 in the industrial city of 700,000. Mayor Rehina Vladyslavivna Kharchenko has formally recognized the strength of the church in helping emotionally and physically wounded citizens cope and recover.

On March 1, the mayor signed an official memorandum with Mission Eurasia, authorizing the gospel and humanitarian ministry to provide spiritual and medical care and healing to civilians injured on the front lines of war, at the very locations of the tragedies.

Mission Eurasia President Sergey Rakhuba, who grew up in Zaporizhzhia but now leads the Tennessee-headquartered ministry, called the agreement a groundbreaking partnership demonstrating an unprecedented collaboration between the government and the church.

“When the government leaders of Zaporizhzhia asked us to help address both the medical and spiritual needs of civilians and frontline responders, we recognized immediately our profound duty as Christians,” Rakhuba said. “This partnership clearly demonstrates that Ukraine deeply values spiritual engagement and sees the church as an essential, trusted partner during this critical time.”

The agreement distinguishes Mission Eurasia with a government seal, allowing its ministers, counselors and medical professionals to respond to communities after they are shelled or attacked.

Under the agreement, Mission Eurasia is deploying six mobile medical clinics staffed by trained Christian medical professionals and spiritual emergency responders through the ministry’s Next Generation Professional Leaders Initiative in partnership with the Christian Medical Association of Ukraine.

The fully equipped mobile clinics staffed by Christian medical professionals will provide both urgent care and spiritual care, augmented with a team of trauma counselors and ministry leaders who will offer the hope of Christ alongside medical treatment. Mission Eurasia will distribute Bibles, children’s Bibles and biblical literature.

All services will be offered at no charge, and Mission Eurasia will perform the ministry at no cost to the government, Rakhuba said.

“This is a life-saving ministry,” he said. “Lives are in danger.”

Government officials had seen Mission Eurasia’s work in the center of Zaporizhzhia in the Reimer Center, Rakhuba said, where thousands of Ukrainian refugees sought aid as they left their homes in the early days of the war in 2022. Mission Eurasia has several offices in the center.

“The local government cannot accommodate all (of the people),” Rakhuba said, “so our mobile clinics, our mobile kitchens, and distribution of food, clothing, helping with housing, was very useful. It gave such a huge impact.”

But without the new memorandum, Mission Eurasia was confined to certain areas and lacked the authority to enter war zones to treat injured civilians.

“(The government) said, ‘We see how much impact you bring with your spiritual and emotional counseling ministries, so we want your mobile clinics to be in the places where we have … continuous shelling,’” Rakhuba said of the Zaporizhzhia city leaders. “When there is a hit and there is destruction, there is lots of chaos, of course. The city paramedics are there with firefighters and the rescue mission, but they want our unit to be staffed with volunteer medical workers, but also with pastors and spiritual counselors and trauma counselors to be like the first spiritual responders to those areas.

“And the government wanted us to sign memorandum, official memorandum,” he said. “That means, they give us green light to be there with first responders as spiritual first responders where all the tragedies happen.”

Mission Eurasia hopes to work long-term in the area, treating adults and children as they grapple with the trauma of living in a war zone, Rakhuba said. Through Mission Eurasia’s Restoration Initiative, local ministers leading congregations 5 or 10 miles away from the frontlines of war are learning to respond to the unique spiritual needs war creates.

“Healing takes time,” he said. “There is no deadline to it. It’s indefinite. It’s a spiritual ministry. This is restoring people’s lives.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)