The Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary recently celebrated another graduation, sending out into ministry 302 students from a number of different programs. And we are grateful to God for every one of them — for the graduates they have become. Among them was Oleksandra Andriyashina, the first female military chaplain in the history of Ukraine, who completed the Theology of Transformational Leadership master’s program. Today, she serves as a captain in the Chaplaincy Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, being responsible for an entire regiment on the front line.
Oleksandra’s path to the seminary was anything but conventional. In 1990 she came to faith in Christ after watching the Jesus film — and within months was baptized and immersed in children’s ministry, which remained her focus for the next twenty years.
When war broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Oleksandra began traveling there as a volunteer, then quickly sensed a deeper calling: not just to bring aid, but to bring the Good News that the Lord is with the soldiers, and to prepare souls to meet Him if death came close. In 2015, she moved from Kyiv to Stanytsia Luhanska, where she started a Christian volunteer center that grew into a full church. More than 20 people were baptized there before 2018. Three more years followed in Avdiivka. Altogether, she spent seven years living on the front line, staying continuously among those she served.
From the Trenches to a Regiment of 500–600
Today, Oleksandra is a captain in the chaplaincy service, responsible for an entire regiment of around 600 servicemen. “This is my church now,” she says of her congregation in uniform. Her daily life is trenches, hospitals, her comrades’ weddings and, unfortunately, their funerals. When a unit deploys to the front line, she lives there with the soldiers for weeks, sometimes months, sharing their routine, danger, and exhaustion. Over the years of full-scale war she has lost dozens of close friends among those she accompanied spiritually… And she continues to attend funerals, visit hospitals, and travel the length of the front line, seeing it as her mission despite the emotional cost.
Ministry Without a Template
In numerous conversations, Oleksandra has returned to one point: there is no template for her ministry, and there cannot be one. Every conversation with a soldier is like the first time; every situation demands fresh attentiveness to the Holy Spirit. Her principles are simple but demanding. They are to truly listen, to truly love, to accept people as they are, and to trust God deeply even when resources seem to run out.
She is convinced that support for the military begins not with grand gestures but with simple human kindness — warmth, gratitude, the willingness not to look away from a defender in a shop or at a gas station. “We want the country to be one worth defending” — a phrase she once heard from a soldier — has become her personal creed, one she repeats to civilians across the country.
Impact of studying at UETS
Speaking at her graduation ceremony, Oleksandra reflected on what studying at the seminary meant to her. She started her program at UETS about six months before she officially received her captain’s rank, and it was here, she said, that she first heard the challenge to plan not only for the next year, but for the next generations. “It pulled the ground from under my feet,” she admitted.
She spoke of how deeply the seminary had changed her, and of her conviction that it will continue to do so. She thanked her professors and thanked God for preserving in her a “teachable spirit,” noting that it was no accident the apostles in the Gospel were called disciples of Jesus Christ, and recalling the command “Go and teach all nations” as a guiding principle for her own ministry.
Representing the 502nd Separate Electronic Warfare Regiment, to which she is assigned as chaplain, Oleksandra brought words of gratitude from her commanding officers to the seminary’s faculty. Her regiment commander praised the seminary’s professionalism in training chaplain-officers as a cornerstone of the army’s strength and success, noting that thanks to leaders like the seminary’s faculty, servicemen “remain confident warriors of light,” with the Lord reigning among them and leading them to victory. Her unit thanked the faculty for their genuine care, strong values, and personal example to chaplain-officer students. This support, the commander said, strengthens the Armed Forces and helps those who stand daily beside the warriors trust God more deeply and hold onto their faith.
From a girl who, in 1990, first believed Christ’s words that He would never leave her, to a captain responsible for an entire regiment’s spiritual care, Oleksandra Andriyashina embodies exactly the kind of transformational leadership our seminary exists to form. We are grateful to have played a part in her journey, and we celebrate her, alongside all our graduates, as she continues to serve those who stand daily on the frontline for Ukraine.