Beyond Bucha – Chapter 1: Bucha

We’re introducing a convenient way to watch the film in manageable chunks. We’ve just completed a 57-minute version, which we’re breaking into six easily digestible episodes—starting with the first one, Bucha, included below. We hope you’ll join us in the coming weeks as we go Beyond Bucha, finding the Spirit in Ukraine—from the churches to the front. 

Introduction

​Beyond Bucha is a journey through the evangelical heart of Ukraine—part documentary, part travelogue, and wholly focused on faith under fire.

Shot across eastern and southern Ukraine in September and October 2024, this third film in the series visits both familiar places from Back to Bucha—like Kyiv, Bucha, and Irpin—and new front-line cities such as Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Odesa.

While the Sunday services, evangelical pastors, and worship bands resemble evangelical gatherings throughout America, what makes them profoundly poignant is that they can only happen in free Ukraine. In territories under Russian occupation, such gatherings are banned. Evangelical pastors are arrested. Churches are closed or repurposed. Faith, in these zones, becomes a crime.

​A central aim of Beyond Bucha is to expose the existential threat Ukrainian evangelicals face if Russia is allowed to continue its war unchecked. While some voices in the West—like Tucker Carlson—have falsely suggested Ukraine persecutes Christians, the reality is the opposite: in Russian-occupied areas, evangelicals are targeted and violently suppressed. The film seeks to correct this misinformation and call fellow believers in the U.S.—including members of Congress who claim Christian values—to stand with Ukrainian Christians whose churches, ministries, and very lives are at risk.

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Chapter 1: Bucha

In Bucha, we revisit familiar faces, including Julia, the café owner featured in Back to Bucha. Her story of returning to rebuild in 2022 was powerful enough—but now, in 2024, she’s opening another spot: Jul’s Coffee and Cocktails. She offers duck breast and tiramisu alongside espresso and faith, not for profit but to restore her city’s economy. A petite cross around her neck reflects a deeper conviction—her belief in God, her country, and Bucha’s future. Hers is just one example of what could be called “faith-based capitalism,” alive and well across Ukraine. For a deeper dive since the initial destruction of her coffee shop in February 2022, check out Back to Bucha (Again) and Insights from Ukraine’s Faith-Based Capitalism.

​At Bethany Baptist Church in Bucha, we meet Pastor Oleksandr Kulbych, a fourth-generation preacher whose great-grandfather was imprisoned during the Soviet era. His congregation still bears the scars of Russian occupation—some members were killed, others are now on the front lines, and PTSD is widespread. Yet the church persists. For more from this Baptist leader check out Bethany Baptist Church - Bucha, Ukraine.