Two Ukrainian Christians, separated in age by a half-century, experienced the love of Jesus and the horrors of war.  

Artem Vinogradar, 22, died in mid-August while fighting against invading Russian forces. 

Two weeks later, longtime church leader and theologian Igor Kozlovsky, who spent nearly two years as the prisoner of pro-Russian separatists, died of a heart attack. He was 70.

‘He protected his family, our country’

Born May 21, 2002, into a poor family in a rural Ukrainian village, Vinogradar’s parents separated when he was young. His mother remarried, and his relationship with his stepfather was strained, said Alexei Kalchuk, a former minister in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol and longtime friend.

“When his mother gave birth to his stepfather’s son and daughter, Artem became completely superfluous in this happy family,” Kalchuk told The Christian Chronicle. Vinogradar went to a boarding school in Poltava, where a teacher instilled in him a love for his country. He became a cadet of the Ukrainian Cossacks.

“During his last two years of study at the boarding school, Christians from the Church of Christ began to visit the school,” Kalchuk said. “These people taught lessons about the importance of moral and spiritual values ​​in human life, and Artem soon made friends with Christians and began to attend church meetings.” He was baptized in 2018.

He graduated at age 17, “and left the walls that had warmed him in recent years,” Kalchuk said. “Not knowing what to do next and where to go, he turned to the church, which already considered Artem to be one its own.”

He stayed witch church members and became close to Christians including Fedor Chernichkin, a minister for the Church of Christ who moved to Poltava after pro-Russian separatists seized control of his homeland in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region in 2014.

“He was young and determined to serve in the church and to be faithful to God,” one of Vinogradar’s friends, Artur Lytvynenko, told Suspilne, Ukrainian public radio. “I remember him as a young, stubborn and courageous guy with a rather hard core.”

Vinogradar attended the Ukrainian Bible Institute — which had relocated from eastern Ukraine to the country’s capital, Kyiv. The school is associated with Texas-based Sunset International Bible Institute.

“He was a sharp student, and I will always remember his good nature, his smile and his love to laugh,” said Brandon Price, director of the Ukrainian Bible Institute. “He had overcome much in his past, and his future was bright.”

His girlfriend, Valentina, also had overcome a difficult past, Kalchuk said. Orphaned at age 3, she was raised by her aunt and also had studied at a boarding school.

“Artem often came to Valentina’s house and helped his girlfriend and her (aunt) with the housework in order to be close,” Kalchuk said. “He was taught in the church how a Christian should look after a girl … Soon Valentina accepted Christ into her life and they began to attend meetings of the Church of Christ together.”

They married in May 2021. Kalchuk performed the wedding ceremony. Soon the couple has a son, Benjamin.

“Artem and Valentina wanted to become the best parents for this baby,” Kalchuk said. “They wanted to give him what no one gave them … They succeeded. But in February, the war began.

“Artem, already a youth leader in the church, helped in serving immigrants and refugees. He joined the ranks of volunteers who evacuated people from cities that were in the war zone and transported food and first aid to areas where there was no electricity, communications and water, but there was death and destruction. His wife was waiting for him at home and prayed that this cup would pass from him.”

He was drafted into the army in December and trained in Britain, Kalchuk said. 

“When Artem called his wife and friends, he always said that he did not want to kill anyone and (that he) hoped that the war would end before he completed his training. But he also said that he was called to defend his country, home, family — and this is different because there is no greater love than that if someone gives his life for his friends,” Kalchuk said, citing John 15:13.

Vinogradar served as a sniper in the airborne assault unit, Suspilne reported. He died in combat Aug. 15 near the village of Verbove.

Valentina is pregnant with their second child. Program for Humanitarian Aid, a nonprofit supported by congregations including the A&M Church of Christ in College Station, Texas, paid the couple’s rent as they served the church.

“Artem was one of our kids — and part of PHA’s ministry for many years,” said Wes Hawthorne, development officer for the nonprofit and a member of the A&M church. “He came to our summer camps for several years.”

His wife and child relocated to Greece with Chernichkin and his family. Ukrainians across Europe mourn, including Kalchuk, who spent 51 days trapped in the Mariupol church’s building with fellow believers as intense fighting raged outside.

“My brother was killed,” said Kalchuk, now in Poland. “He protected his family, our country, his children. Artem, we will surely see you! Rest in peace, my friend.”

A tortured theologian turns to love 

Kozlovsky, a former deputy minister of religion for eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region, worshiped with and nurtured the Cup of Life Church of Christ, a congregation of young believers in Donetsk, a city in the Donbas region. He taught at a university and was a prolific writer, authoring more than 50 books and 200 journal articles.

In 2014, as the separatists seized control, many of Kozlovsky’s fellow believers fled westward. But the minister stayed to care for his 37-year-old son, Slava, who has Down syndrome. The move would be too traumatic for him, Kozlovsky told his wife, Valentina, who also wanted to leave.

Kozlovsky was an outspoken critic of the conflict. On Jan. 27, 2016, six militia men forced their way into his apartment and arrested him. They forbade Valentina from visiting him. Reluctantly, she and Slava left for Kyiv.

Kozlovsky’s captors placed a cloth bag over his head, locked him in handcuffs and forced him to hold a pair of grenades, which they claimed they had found behind a bookshelf in his apartment. For hours, they beat him with “something that felt like sticks,” he said, but he continually denied their charges.

That was the worst of the 700 days he spent in captivity, Kozlovsky said. The best was Dec. 27, 2017, when he and 74 other captives were freed as part of a prisoner exchange.

It was “my second birthday, the best page of my life,” Kozlovsky told The Christian Chronicle from Kyiv in early 2018. After his baptism years earlier, he once again felt reborn.

He continued his academic career, working as a senior researcher at the Institute of Philosophy at Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv before a heart attack claimed his life in the early hours of Sept. 6.

One of his colleagues, Lyudmila Filipovich, said of Kozlovsky, “His life path was extremely eventful — and full of challenges.”

Despite the violence and hatred he endured in captivity, Kozlovsky spent his final years talking about love. After his captors tortured him and removed the bag from his head, “I was covered in blood, but smiling,” he said. 

“I realized I’m not afraid to die,” Kozlovsky said. He also realized that he would live “because I am in love. I love my family. They are waiting for me. My friends, they fight for me. I love my Ukraine. … But that is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that they love me. They suffer. And I shall live, because I am a debtor of love. 

“The debt of love is never-ending. He is with you all the time. … He’s not getting any smaller. This is your mission. It is your responsibility to become love.”

To assist Vinogradar’s family and Christians in Ukraine, contact Sunset International Bible Institute and Program for Humanitarian Aid.

This story is republished from The Christian Chronicle.

Erik Tryggestad is president and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. He has filed stories for the Chronicle from more than 65 nations.