Shepherd and Soldier: A Calvary Chapel Pastor on Ukraine’s Front Lines
Photos by Dara Markey
Before enlisting in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Sasha Borysov was part of the preaching rotation at Calvary Chapel Ternopil.
Sergeant Oleksandr “Sasha” Borysov of the Ukrainian Armed Forces will never forget the image: a soldier carried in by his comrades-in-arms. The horrific gash across his abdomen. Intestines spilling out everywhere.
Sasha gently cleaned the guts and the wound, then he tried to put everything back in the right place before carefully stitching the man shut. The soldier survived, and Sasha, a former chaplain, had the joy of knowing God was using him not only to save souls, but also to save lives.
Sasha, 53, isn’t just a sergeant with medic skills. He’s also an experienced special ops commando and a former chaplain. Before Russian aggression turned Ukraine into a war zone, he was a missionary and a church planter. But before that, he was on the run from God.
From childhood, Sasha knew he was called to be a missionary, but he didn’t want to follow that path. He wanted to live life on his own terms. But when he was 16, he experienced the overwhelming love of God. Sasha told the Lord, I give up. I can’t run from You anymore, and he fully surrendered to his Savior.
In 1992, Sasha married a woman named Lyuda. Instead of going on a honeymoon, the newlyweds immediately went off to missionary school. Upon graduation, they became an unstoppable missionary force, planting churches in Ukraine and even spending a year in the Philippines. Along the way, they had two daughters.
In 2009, the family moved to Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa to plant a church. Five years later, in 2014, Russia sparked fighting in two eastern regions of Ukraine and invaded Crimea. Sasha immediately felt it was his duty to serve his country. With the Russian army occupying Crimea, Odesa didn’t feel safe anymore. Lyuda told her husband to take her and their girls back to their hometown of Ternopil in Western Ukraine, and then he could go serve. In 2015, the family joined a wave of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people from Eastern and Southern Ukraine seeking refuge in other parts of the country.
Sasha and his comrades perform a sweep of territory recently liberated from the Russian army.
As soon as they were settled, Sasha started making trips to the east as a chaplain. Tens of thousands of volunteers were defending their country from Russian-backed separatist fighters trying to take over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Sasha was taken aback to discover that many of these volunteer soldiers were only 18, younger than his own daughters. He quickly developed a fatherly affection for them. They responded with trust and openness. They genuinely valued their conversations with Sasha and looked forward to seeing him each time he visited. After serving as a chaplain for about a year, one day Sasha had a stunning realization. If he wanted to minister to these young men in the most effective way possible, he needed to be beside them during their most harrowing moments.
Sasha asked if they would feel safer if he went with them on missions. The response was unanimous: The men wanted their chaplain with them in the trenches. That’s how Sasha, a former missionary church planter, became a volunteer soldier in Ukraine’s Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO), the defense effort lasting for 12 years from February 2014 until the full-scale Russian invasion of February 2022.
It’s said there are no atheists in foxholes. Faced with the daily possibility of dying, the men around Sasha were searching for answers and reassurance. He had frequent opportunities to share the Gospel and the privilege of helping many draw closer to God or find Him for the first time. The circumstances were awful, but Sasha wouldn’t have considered being anywhere else. All that changed on one catastrophic day in 2017.
Sasha was leading a mission when he and his men encountered an enemy sniper. Sasha watched helplessly as these men he had come to love like sons were slaughtered, one by one, to the last man. Sasha didn’t understand why he had survived, and he didn’t have the heart to fight anymore. As a volunteer, he was free to leave. Broken and angry, he returned home to his family.
It was a dark season. Hatred for the enemy consumed him, even invading his dreams. God felt unreachable.
His daughter Dara Markey remembers that time. “I was engaged, and I realized that though my fiancé had spent lots of time with the man called Sasha Borysov, he had never actually met my dad. The man he knew wasn’t my dad. The dad I remembered was charismatic and happy; he loved to joke and make people laugh. This man was always unhappy, anxious, and unsettled.”
Things continued like this until 2019. Though still wrestling with the aftermath of his traumatic experiences, Sasha was preparing to rejoin the fighting. But he heard God speak to him in a dream, telling him to stay home because he was going to have a grandson in July. When his daughter Dara announced she was expecting a baby in July, Sasha knew it was the grandson God had promised. Instead of returning to the war, he stayed home to welcome the new grandbaby.
“When I held him in my arms, I felt God again for the first time after everything that had happened,” Sasha said.
That day marked the beginning of Sasha’s healing journey. Gradually, the man his family remembered returned. He became active in church life again, eventually joining the preaching team of Calvary Chapel Ternopil in 2021.
When Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022, Sasha’s hatred was gone, replaced by a fervor for God’s glory among all the nations—even Russia. At a prayer meeting on the first day of the war, he proclaimed, “When this is over, Ukrainians will go as missionaries to Russia. Ukrainians will bring the Kingdom of God to Russia.” His words had the force of a prophecy, completely altering the atmosphere in the room, returning the focus to God and His mission.
During a rare moment of quiet between bombardments and missions, the soldiers collect firewood to brew coffee and prepare food.
Sasha quickly responded to the new threat to his country. This time he officially enlisted in the Ukrainian army and became part of a special operations unit. Just as during the ATO, he sees himself as a pastor to his comrades-in-arms, who often ask him about God and faith.
Sasha’s family and CC Ternopil offer constant prayers for his protection. God has been so faithful that the soldiers regard Sasha as a sort of talisman. Using his call sign, they say, “If Harakternik is with us, nothing’s going to happen.” (Harakternik refers to the ancient spiritual leaders of the Ukrainian Cossacks, the traditional defenders of the Ukrainian homeland.)
God’s protection extends beyond preserving Sasha’s life. The long separations forced on military couples are having a devastating effect on Ukrainian marriages. Sasha and Lyuda’s relationship is an inspiring exception. They are in this together, both fighting in their own way. Lyuda has put her life on hold, focusing instead on supporting her husband. “When Sasha comes back, I want to still be on the same page,” she said. “If I start my own life right now, how can we still be one when he comes back?”
Over the 12 years of the war, they have always found a way to stay united. They cherish every moment together, and Lyuda frequently travels to visit Sasha, despite the risk. “I’m not afraid. If I had the choice, I’d be happy to die with him,” she acknowledged.
With the full-scale war now in its fifth year, morale on the front lines is suffering. Sasha noted, “We don’t hope for the end of the war anymore. We just take it one day at a time. Because if you’re always thinking that it will just be a few more months, you’ll drive yourself crazy. But I don’t regret my choice to serve. If not me, then who?”
Read more stories about God’s work among Ukrainians: SharonTMarkey.com
Ukraine has been at war with Russian proxies since February 2014. Ukrainians call the escalation that made international headlines in February 2022, the Full-Scale War. This is to acknowledge the fact that Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, came after eight years of constant war in the eastern part of Ukraine.
Left: Sasha and Lyuda love being grandparents.
Right: “Baby” Elroi still holds a special place in his grandpa’s heart.
When he comes home on leave, Sasha (center) is still an active part of CC Ternopil.
Sasha’s family excitedly welcomes him whenever he comes home on leave. He now has seven grandchildren.
Thank you for reading! If this story inspired you, we invite you to partner with us in continuing the ministry God started over 27 years ago. We appreciate your prayerful consideration in joining us to reach more souls for Jesus.
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