As Russia’s war on Ukraine drags on into its fourth year, a series of battlefield and infrastructure setbacks for Vladimir Putin’s regime appear to be turning the tide in favor of Ukraine’s tenacious armed forces. Despite this, a recent documentary is revealing the extent of the devastation that Russia has inflicted on Ukraine’s massive Christian population.

An Associated Press report noted last week that Kyiv is increasingly targeting Russia’s oil facilities with drones and missiles to clog the gears of Moscow’s war machine, which has so far captured approximately 20% of Ukraine’s territory. The AP noted that attacks on Russian oil assets have “become almost daily occurrences.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated Monday that his country’s forces are currently creating oil shortages in Crimea and other Russian-held areas. “Our troops are now capable of reaching Russian military logistics across virtually the entire depth of the temporarily occupied territories,” he remarked. “In practice, there are almost no safe roads left for the occupier in the south and east of our country.”

Meanwhile, experts on the ground in Ukraine say they are cautiously optimistic about the outlook for Kyiv in the conflict.

“I think there [are] a lot of signs of hope for the Ukrainians right now,” former U.S. Marine Corps Captain Colby Barrett observed during “Washington Watch” Friday. “I’ve been there three times. I’ve traveled the entire length of the front line, and the times that I’ve been there before, there was a little bit of desperation. Obviously, they’re hanging in there, but it’s pretty tough. Recently, you’re seeing strikes on Moscow, the mid-range drone activity. They’ve been able to cut off one of the major roads that connects Russia to occupied Crimea. And Russia’s advance has actually turned negative. I think in the last month, Ukraine regained 116 square kilometers of territory. So a lot of good signs for them, but it’s still a brutal, very violent war there on the front.”

Barrett further detailed how Ukraine’s unrelenting resolve has turned the tide of the war despite Russia’s huge advantages in troop numbers and equipment. “I think Russia has lost somewhere between 1.3 and 1.4 million casualties, more than any conflict that they’ve been in since World War II,” he pointed out. “So the number of troops that they’re losing there and pieces of equipment, especially air defense, has really been what’s turning the tide. As Ukraine is able to destroy those air defense systems, they can push farther and farther with some of the drone technology. And again, most of this is homegrown. I think around 70% of the weapons that they’re using right now are made in Ukraine. So they’ve really ratcheted up their defense industry to fight back against the Russians.”

Notwithstanding the battlefield success for Ukraine, Barrett went on to relate how he got involved in making the documentary film “A Faith Under Siege” about how the Russians have targeted Christian churches across Ukraine and persecuted the Christian population.

“I don’t have any kind of background or connection with Ukraine … but a couple summers ago, I was called to go on an aid convoy there,” he explained. “[It was] really just one of these Holy Spirit things to go there and see what was going on, and what we saw, especially what was happening to Christians at the hands of the Russians in Ukraine, it just blew my mind to the point that we made a documentary about it. … [A]s a military officer, I did have experience in terms of being able to lead convoys and put teams together, and that was really what this ended up being. We had to go out there in areas that were relatively close to the front and talk to people — priests that had been tortured by the Russian forces and a lot of pastors that had been forcibly deported from the occupied portions of Ukraine, as well as folks that had lost their churches and their homes to Russian attacks.”

Barrett further chronicled the extent of the destruction of Christian churches and pastors killed at the hands of the Russians.

“[A]s of December of 2025, the number was 737 churches that had been looted, shelled, or destroyed by Russia [and] 58 priests or pastors killed as part of their invasion,” he underscored. “… [I]t’s a very overwhelmingly faithful nation … more than 80% of Ukrainians would identify as Christians. There [are] churches everywhere, basically every kind of sect or denomination you could think of. … [S]ome of the first ones targeted when Russia comes in to occupy areas [are] Protestants. … [T]hey’re seen as being kind of an American religion, therefore they must be working with the CIA is the theory. … Catholics are next, and then the Orthodox believers are kind of lower down on the list, but still on that list.”

“In free Ukraine, we’re seeing a lot more church bombings lately with Shahed and Iskander missiles,” Barrett added. “I was thinking … how many churches I’ve been to in free Ukraine and how many had been hit, and I think the vast majority of the ones that I’ve visited have been hit since I’ve been there last. So it’s really troubling.”

Several countries have announced in recent days that they are stepping up their military aid to Ukraine, including Finland and Japan. U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recently remarked that the U.S. is exploring ways to aid Ukraine’s defense capabilities through changes to ammunition production and helping to facilitate European aid.