The AFU military chaplain service is 45% staffed

As of October 2025, the military chaplaincy service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is approximately 45% staffed. Currently, representatives of 13 different religious organizations are serving in its ranks, providing spiritual support to servicemen and their families. The total staffing level of the service is about 1,700 people.

Colonel Alexander Vovkotecha, head of the Military Chaplaincy Service of the AFU, told a press conference in Kiev. As Interfax-Ukraine reports, according to him, the staffing of the positions of military chaplains directly is 43%, and assistant chaplains – about 40%. It is planned that the service will have about 800 chaplains and the same number of their assistants, as well as about 70 people of management staff.

To date, 13 religious organizations are represented in the structure of the chaplain service, including the PCU, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic Churches, the All-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Christian Baptist Churches, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Ukraine “UMMA”, the Union of Jewish Communities of Messianic Judaism and others.

Colonel Vovkotecha emphasized that the key task of chaplains is to meet the spiritual and religious needs of military personnel. Their activities include four main areas: pastoral care, religious-educational work, social and charitable activities and advising the command on religious issues. He also noted that in the conditions of military aggression of the Russian Federation such support is especially important for the formation of spiritual fortitude of fighters. Training of military chaplains is carried out both in Ukraine and abroad, including in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.

We will remind, earlier we reported that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved changes to the “Regulations on the procedure for issuing a mandate for the right to carry out military chaplaincy activities” within the Armed forces of Ukraine. According to the new amendments, the UOC priests are finally prohibited from performing chaplaincy activities in military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.