LONDON — On Feb. 24, an interfaith prayer service was held at London’s Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family to commemorate the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

There were prayers, hymns and addresses from various British Christian leaders. But one contribution was especially moving: a personal testimony from Ukrainian Catholic Father Taras Mykhalchuk, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Garrison Church in Lviv, Ukraine, on ministering to families who have lost loved ones in the war.

Father Mykhalchuk is a military chaplain currently serving on the front line with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He was 25 years old when this aspect of his priestly ministry began, following the first Russian invasion in 2014. Today, he is part of a team of 16 priests whose mission is to provide pastoral care not only to those fighting but also to their families.

The Register spoke with him shortly after his recent visit to London, beginning with the obvious question: What have the last three years on the front been like?

“This is a special time,” the priest began, adding, “First of all, I needed not to be afraid of death. When I first went to the front during the full-scale war in May 2022, I wrote a farewell note. Then I went there, and from that time on, my faith grew into trust in God — a very real trust.”

Father Mykhalchuk went on to say that these years, blighted by war, have irrevocably changed his life.

“Every day is like the last,” he explained. “You clearly understand that you live for the sake of others — to help them, to help your country. And as the rector of the Garrison Church, I have to bury soldiers very often.”

On some days, he officiates at as many as five funerals. “This is a big challenge,” he continued, “where you need to completely entrust God with everything.”

In particular, he recounted the pain of seeing children left orphaned. For him, “it is impossible to experience this without having trust in God.”

Many of the Ukrainian soldiers he serves are likely to die in battle. How does he deal with this reality?

“It is a great honor to stay near heroes — those who sacrifice themselves for the sake of others,” the military chaplain reflected. “They are righteous people; I would even say that they are holy people. The most important thing is to help them believe that everything they do saves many other lives.”

In that case, is it true that there are “no atheists in fox holes?”

“Yes, it’s true,” he replied. “If a person finds himself on the verge of life and death — and this is every day — then everyone asks God to save them.”

Given the news reports coming out of Ukraine, he also underscored the horrors of war.

“I think it is impossible to imagine war,” he said, “and it is also impossible to understand those who have been at war. War is terrible because innocent children die, and many children become orphans. This is very scary. But war also teaches you to live by the principle: ‘freedom or death’ — and after that, it’s no longer scary.”

Reflecting on the broader moral landscape of the war, Father Mykhalchuk also addressed the relationship between the pastoral and the political.

“Politicians are a part of our society,” he said, “so there is no need to isolate oneself from politics. But the most important thing when communicating with politicians is to make them understand that the most valuable thing is the salvation of the soul, and that earthly life ends for everyone, and that eternity lies ahead.”

Especially difficult for him personally, he says, are the wartime funerals for children.

“The hardest thing is to bury small innocent children who were killed by a hostile Russian missile,” he said. Just recently, he had to bury a mother and her three daughters who had been killed by Russian shelling. That memory is still raw for Father Mykhalchuk — as is another recent one: “to see the tears of small children who hug the coffin of their father who has perished.”

Mykhalchuk was born in Lviv in 1983. He entered Lviv Theological Seminary of the Holy Spirit in 2002. As is permitted in the Eastern Rite, he married in 2008 — he and his wife now have four children — and was ordained a priest of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Archdiocese of Lviv in the following year. He was assigned to the Garrison Church in Lviv in 2011.

Has his prolonged immersion in the suffering of war strengthened or weakened his faith?

His reply is resolute: “The war has definitely strengthened my faith. During the war, there is you and God and the prayers of relatives — this is the basis of security, nothing else.”