“It was just a matter of time,” Oleksii said. “Sooner or later, they would call us to fight.”
When pastor Oleksii M. and his two friends, Pasha and Dima, heard that military officers were circulating service orders among the men in nearby villages, they decided that they would not wait to be called in by the Ukraine army; they would report on their own. The three men had no intention of offering to become active combatants in the war, but they also had no intention of avoiding the authorities that were conscripting all men under the age of sixty to bear arms and fight for their country.
“We chose to go to them first,” Oleksii explained, “so that they would not accuse us of trying to hide.”
A few hours later, the three friends were standing in front of the military authorities. “Where are your papers?” the officers demanded.
“We have not yet been served our papers,” the men responded. “We have come on our own initiative.”
This response was received with suspicion. The officers were accustomed to going into the towns and villages to conscript soldiers; it was unusual for men to come in voluntarily. The officers became even more perplexed as the three men openly declared that they would not bear arms.
“Our faith and Mennonite Brethren convictions will not allow us to kill another human being,” they explained, “but we serve in other ways.” They then shared about how their MB churches were acting as shelters for the displaced, helping with evacuation and resettlement, caring for orphans and the elderly and even taking food to those on the front lines.
"We fight, but not with guns,” Oleksii said. “We fight despair, hunger, hate.” The officers checked and verified the men’s church membership status, their statutes regarding active combat, and even verified their baptism dates. Then they sent them away, saying brusquely, “Go! For us you are useless!”
The next day, the officials showed up at the church shelter in Mukachevo where Oleksii and others were serving. They saw with their own eyes the work being done, and that these men were neither cowards nor traitors. They were fighting for their country. But theirs was a different kind of war.
