Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Pastor Angel Pilev has been bringing aid to the Ukrainians every few months, traveling to their country. Generators, food, and whatever else he can help with. What is he observing now… Pastor Angel Pilev speaks to FACT.
- Pastor Pilev, you continue to travel to Ukraine frequently to bring aid. How do you view the situation there? What are your latest impressions?
- This year I was in Ukraine in January and March, and now in May I will travel again. On the one hand, perhaps the Ukrainians had hope in the new American President Donald Trump that if not in 24 hours, as he said, then at least quickly the war would end. Since this is not happening yet, they feel somewhat betrayed. On the other hand, in conversations with Ukrainians, as a pastor, I try to direct their faith to God. I tell them that the greatest guarantee for the integrity and independence of Ukraine is the Ukrainian army. Yes, foreign countries can help, but the real guarantee for Ukraine is the Ukrainian military. I think that the Ukrainians themselves realized it the hard way. This is something like an allusion to Bulgaria in the 90s, when the changes began, and we all watched and wanted things to happen very quickly. Then it turned out that we had to work a lot and the most important thing is for us to roll up our sleeves and build our future. But at least we wanted the guarantee that we would not be hindered, that no one would steal our work.
- Which cities do you travel to and how do people live there…
- They live as if they are at war. The truth is that it is calmer in the west. The further east you go, the more complicated it becomes. I mainly reach Kiev, Zhytomyr, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Rivne, etc. We simply have good relations with various church communities and with our embassy in the person of Ambassador Nikolay Nenchev. He has participated in our actions several times. From the city of Nikopol, which is 70 km from the front, and there is a lot of heavy destruction in it as a result of the bombing, they asked us for generators. It was to them that we managed, with the intercession of Ambassador Nenchev, to deliver aid. It is difficult, it is difficult. You understand it when you see it.
- How do you travel? We recently saw bombings in Kiev…
- What can I say… We travel with prayer throughout Ukraine. We move by car, but we always pray to the Lord to protect us. The last time we were in the Zhytomyr region. There I photographed a house that had recently been hit. Miraculously, a mother and her two children survived. The shelling took place in the morning at around 6:00. The father, Yuri, is a teacher at the village school. It is a real miracle that they are alive, because they were still in their beds, and the shrapnel landed literally 10-15 centimeters above the beds of the two girls - one is five, the other is seven years old. But this man acted very quickly, immediately taking the children out into the street. Only his wife had a head wound, she was taken to the hospital, but it turned out that there was no serious problem. Yuri also managed to save a few rabbits. The other animals were burned.
But their whole house is ruined. Their car - an old “Lada“ is useless. The man managed to push it away from the house so that it wouldn't explode because it's on gas. Literally in one day we managed to collect enough money for a new car for Yuri, so that he could get around and fix his house. We bought him a small “Ford“ for 3,000 leva. I was pleasantly surprised, because I thought it would take us two or three weeks to collect the necessary amount, but it was collected in 24 hours. Then I wrote to him that the old “Ford“ was better than a new “Lada“ - sometimes jokingly, sometimes seriously. There are hundreds of thousands of destroyed homes there. But when something happens before your eyes, you perceive things differently.
- And how is it on the roads? Last year, when we spoke, you were under fire. How is it now...?
- We haven't had any other incidents like this. And the Ukrainians themselves are trying to help us and are constantly telling us that we are more important to them. Otherwise, there are many hot spots from which in the east it is advisable to move only with armored personnel carriers, helmets and bulletproof vests, because there is a constant danger. When you approach the front line by about 100 km, like Kharkov, for example, it is always dangerous. You never have a guarantee. I have seen drone attacks. If you can imagine a flock of swallows, imagine such a flock, but with drones. It is very difficult to take them all down.
- Are drones becoming the new modern weapon, because we see that both sides are betting a lot on it?
- You definitely don't risk human life, but you attack from the air. There are different drones - for reconnaissance, with small explosive devices, with one grenade, there are kamikaze drones. The Ukrainians are making great progress in developing drones, and it all depends on the need to use the drone, and it also depends on the operator. The Russians are not lagging behind in this, although they use North Korean, Chinese and other drones. They are also learning to use SIM cards, because that way they are better able to position the target. Even if there is no satellite connection, with SIM cards it works. It's not that accurate, but it does the job of striking.
- What do you hear in your conversations with people, what do they need? Do they hope that all this will end soon?
- Everyone wants the war to stop, but I don't think that's Russia's desire, at least for the moment. I don't see Putin or anyone in the Kremlin wanting to end the war. I have the feeling that Putin will hold on to power as long as he can, because there are war-loving generals in the Kremlin. We see that he gives the order not to shoot, but the shooting continues. So either he is the biggest fraud - he says one thing and does another, or the military themselves do not listen to him. There are certainly people in the Kremlin who do not want to end the war, i.e. there are very strong radicals who even think that Putin is not acting properly, is not tough enough, because literally everyone should be killed. There are such wings in Moscow, and I think that Putin does not have full control over his army. The fact is that the front is 1,800 kilometers, it is very large, but when an order is issued by the commander-in-chief, it should be reduced to the personnel and a ceasefire should be imposed. These are the obvious conclusions, and I do not see any desire on the part of Russia at the moment to end everything. In my opinion, this can be ended, I hope, with stronger pressure on Russia. And at the moment, the pressure is primarily on Ukraine, and through Trump and his administration. I see the light in the tunnel in the fact that Germany, France and England are united for the first time in the history of Europe. Basically, they are always against each other. That's how it was historically - France fought against Germany or France against Great Britain. And now for the first time they are truly united. And if we add to them the northern countries like Finland, Sweden, Norway, etc., things look promising. Otherwise, I am more worried about the southern front, but we will see what happens.