MARK JUDGE: Hope, Defiance at a Ukrainian Church in Washington.

Ukraine is a majority Christian nation, with nearly 80 percent identifying as Orthodox Christians. There is also a significant Catholic minority.

While many at the service on Sunday expressed concern with the attack Russia has launched against Ukraine, the more prevalent mood was belief that the Russians have underestimated Ukrainians. Several worshippers said they thought President Putin could lose the conflict.

Andrew Tsintsiruk, Veronica’s father, said that “it has been very special to see all the support from Americans. There are a lot of people here who are not regular parishioners who are here to offer prayers.” Mr. Tsinsiruk, 40, works in IT and came to America when he was in college.

On his phone Mr. Tsinsiruk has a picture of his sister, Irina, who is still in Ukraine. In the photograph, she is seen looking up from inside a bomb shelter.

“The media is putting up a view of something that I don’t think is happening,” adds Zenon Chalupa, 56, a salesman who was born in Ukraine and lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. “When this thing started I was sad, but now I don’t think the media is giving a full picture. People are fighting back and the whole world has come to our side. I heard someone say that this will be over in nine days with Russia winning. I think it will end with Putin withdrawing.”
All week the National Shrine has been holding multiple prayer services for Ukraine.

From your lips to God’s ear.

Plus: “We just did not imagine everything we read about in the history books, everything our parents told us about their experiences, every tear they had shed. We thought that was over, a thing of the past. Yet today it’s being revisited upon us again.”