Mercy on the Frontlines in Ukraine | Valentyna Pavsyukova

February 16, 2026·31 min·2 clips

Jason Jones predicts Valentyna Pavsyukova, founder of Chalice of Mercy, will one day be a canonized saint.

Jason begins in Woodley Park with warmth, teasing, and a nervous joke about getting Valentina Pavzukova's name right. That lightness disappears quickly. The conversation turns into a serious account of mercy work shaped by invasion, Russian prisons, Catholic witness, and a country still asking for help. Valentina does not make the urgency sound dramatic. She makes it sound like daily life now, with nine out of ten messages coming in like SOS calls and no real pause in the alarm. Jason keeps coming back to how much of this work the Catholic world has barely heard about. He is especially struck by her helping bring former Ukrainian prisoners of war to Medjugorje for a spiritual pilgrimage, and he asks why something that moving is not better known. Her answer is plain. She is too busy doing the work. Much of the last four years has been spent in Ukraine, with winter trips back for presentations, talks, and conferences so people can hear what is happening while the war keeps making everything immediate. Jason sees the bind right away: the mission needs to be talked about so support can grow, but the next urgent need is already waiting at the door. The scale hits hard. Chalice of Mercy has shipped over 180 million dollars in value of medical supplies and medicine. Valentina points people toward the visible work instead of polished claims. Jason has seen it himself, and that changes the tone of the appeal. He does not want people only to admire the work from a distance. He has been there, wants to go back, and says the SOS messages reach him too. The ask stays personal. There are not many Catholic groups on the front line, and Jason frames support as a concrete way to serve the men and women defending Ukraine. He calls the invasion brutal and aggressive, then talks about Ukrainians as warriors who shocked Putin and shocked the world by standing stronger than expected. Valentina receives that with gratitude. By the end, the fundraising language has turned into solidarity. The close names Ukraine's survival, toughness, suffering, and the hope that Jason will return this year. It lands like a prayerful salute, with Slava Ukraine and Heroim Slav as the final shared words from people who know the war is still asking something of them.

As heard by us

A Ukraine war interview that treats mercy as something done, not just spoken.

The episode pairs Jason Jones with Valentina Pavzukova, and the focus stays on people living through the war in Ukraine rather than on policy talk.

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Why you'd press play

You want frontline Ukraine testimony from a Catholic aid worker, with medical logistics and urgent war reporting.

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