American pastor Mark Burns, the personal spiritual adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, recently visited our country at the invitation of the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, Moshe Azman. Burns spoke with many religious leaders in Ukraine, heard their real stories, and saw the consequences of Russian occupation and bombing with his own eyes. This trip completely changed his views on the situation, from an absolutely “not” to further support for Ukraine, to active advocacy for larger assistance to Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

Pastor Burns spoke with Ukrinform about how the idea to visit a country at war originated, what specifically led him to change his views, and what he shared with President Trump.

Reflecting on his previous views, Burns admitted, “I felt like a lot of MAGA Republicans that we have been fighting foreign wars and spending money elsewhere, but not in the United States of America.” The Pastor said he was a staunch early Trump supporter before Trump even announced his candidacy. So, because of that, he agreed that “we should not be supporting, or at least funding, any foreign wars.”

Burns’s perspective began to shift when Rabbi Azman, whom he had befriended in South Carolina, invited him to Ukraine. “So while I was in India, the Rabbi said, Pastor, I noticed that you were already over here on this side of the world. Would you be willing to come to meet with some religious leaders, do a pit stop on your way home? And that’s exactly how that came to be,” Burns recounted.

He described his journey to Kyiv as both challenging and symbolic. Upon arrival, the American Pastor met with 20 to 30 religious leaders from various faiths. He emphasized, “This wasn’t a propaganda tour. There wasn’t any media behind it. This was me, a man of God, coming to see other men of God from different faiths.”

The stories he heard were harrowing: “They begin to talk about the atrocities of the Russians, to share real stories of what’s happening, about the tears in the eyes of people getting executed, and pastors, or leaders getting killed. A pastor and his young son were killed. The Russian army has targeted 700-plus religious buildings because it believed it had crushed the faith and the hope of these people who were in these occupied areas.”

Then the Ukrainian religious leaders talked about the 20,000-plus kidnapped children who have been abducted and reprogrammed “to hate Ukrainians, to hate their own people, to eventually, one day, fight against the Ukrainian people.”

Mark Burns said this meeting and the emotional conversation made the biggest impression on him and prompted him to change his views on the Russian war: “That’s what I’m telling you right now, in this meeting, as I was getting to hear these stories, I was beginning to see that these were real people.”

He said he started to “realize his ignorance and to see that Ukraine is bigger than just a blue and yellow flag that you see in parades or at Democrat led party events, these are real people, breathing, individuals, tears in their eyes.”

He was also struck by the unity and freedom among the religious communities: “They talked about how they have real religious freedoms, how they’re all here living proof nobody stops them from practicing their faith. There were Jews, Baptists, Orthodox, and Muslims in one group, and they all differed in theology, yet they unified as people of faith.”

Burns’s visit to Bucha was especially moving. “They showed me all these dead bodies in the streets, and they began to talk about what the Russians did, how the white bandanas were signifying that these were noncombatants. And so when Russians came, they took those same white bandanas and they used them to tie the hands up of these innocent people, shooting them in the back of the head. And to me, that’s not war, that’s war crimes.”

Returning to the United States, Burns shared his impressions directly with President Trump. “I sent him pictures of what had happened, what the Russians were doing. These are not getting reported in the news.” Then, he visited the White House personally.

“And that’s the message I really want the Ukrainian people to know, having heard it firsthand. It doesn’t matter what they may read in the news about President Trump, but the President wants peace. He wants it to come quickly”, the Pastor underscored.

He also described that a couple of days ago, he met in D.C. with the Ukrainian delegation, attended meetings with U.S. senators, and expressed, especially on the Republican side, why the bill with new sanctions on Russia needs to be passed.

“I can tell you, I’m really excited about the responses and the reactions of other Republican senators and congressmen who were once like me against Ukraine,” he stressed. “They heard my report, and they listened to the devastation. They know that I’m not a turncoat, that I don’t play the political game. They know that I am a man of conviction, and I’m not a lobbyist. I don’t work for any company, and I don’t represent the United States government. They know how convinced I am and how strongly I support the MAGA movement and President Trump. They were listening to me, and they wanted to know why I changed my mind,” the Pastor said.

He also challenged skeptics in the U.S., underscoring that people who read his posts say, “Well, it’s very sad what’s happening to Ukraine, but no more support for Ukraine." According to the Pastor, he responded and said, “You wouldn’t be saying that if you were in Kyiv; you wouldn’t be saying that if you were seeing with your own eyes what I’m seeing.”

At the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., Burns delivered a powerful message: “Supporting Ukraine is America First”.

In the interview, he explained that the Lord gave him this message to share with all people as they go out to talk to their congressmen and senators. They need to understand that “supporting Ukraine is America first.”

He explained, “Whether we agree with it or not, we are currently members of NATO. The United States is a member of the Alliance. Article Five states that if a NATO nation is under attack, we, as members of NATO, are obligated to provide support, including American troops and weaponry.”

At the same time, Burns warned of the broader threat: “All intelligence agencies are telling us here in the United States that Vladimir Putin is not going to stop in Ukraine. He has been occupying parts of Georgia. He has already given indications that if he takes Ukraine, he’s going to take Moldova... And they strongly suggested that they will target the Baltic states then, which are NATO members.”

He continued, “If that happens, we will then be forced, by Article Five, to commit more than just weapons. We will commit American boys on the ground. It is our objective, as American first patriots, to say we do not want Americans fighting in other people’s wars.”

In this context, Burns concluded with a call to action: “The way to prevent that from actually happening is to consist the Ukrainian people with everything that they need in regards to weaponry, to arm them to the teeth, to get them more and more weaponry.”

He reminded that President Trump approved more than $300 million in arms to the Ukrainians: “We are sending additional F-16 parts to enhance your ability to control the air, along with the support system that comes with it. All of this occurred after my meeting and time in Ukraine, as well as my conversations with the President and members of Congress.”

Mark Burns expressed to Ukrainians a strong message of hope and solidarity: “I know the President’s goal is to stop the killing that’s happening in Ukraine. And I can tell you that firsthand, not from some report I read, he desires to end this thing.”

He also encouraged the Ukrainian brothers and sisters, assuring them: “I’m delighted and confident that we’ll pass a bill. We have more and more Republican support to create secondary sanctions on Russia that will essentially crush their economy, and they’re already suffering now, as we know, but we want to cut off their ability to continue to wage war and bring them back to the table.”

After Pastor Mark Burns’ trip to Ukraine, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, Moshe Azman, called his visit not just a symbolic gesture, but a “real opportunity to show the truth,” which the spiritual advisor to the US president deeply felt.

Yaroslav Dovgopol, Washington, D.C.