Russian Baptist leader targeted, flees home after praying for peace

Yuri Sipko, a former president of the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists in Russia, fled his homeland in August when authorities attempted to arrest him for publicly praying for peace in Ukraine.

The retired pastor and former vice president of the Baptist World Alliance said he anticipated the government’s action for being an outspoken critic of the war online and after his participation in a virtual prayer vigil for Ukraine in February. The event was hosted by Mission Eurasia on the one-year anniversary of the invasion.

“The law makes it a crime to call the war a ‘war’ and does not allow anyone to call for peace in Ukraine. But I prayed for peace and said it is a crime to drop rockets and bombs on the Ukrainian people,” Sipko, 71, said through an interpreter during a Zoom interview from an undisclosed location in Europe.