In the brutal war that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, tens of thousands of Ukrainian army personnel have been killed, while Russian casualties could be as high as 250,000.

As the conflict continues, we ask how important religion and faith are in the war effort? Who is tasked with rallying the troops when morale crumbles and fear creeps in?

Journalist Lucy Ash speaks to two military chaplains who live alongside troops on the Ukrainian side of the trenches: Father Dmytro, who has lost some of his closest friends in the war, but says that his faith has not been shaken; and Sister Sasha, who sees her task as “talking and listening” to those on the front-line.

On the Russian side, most clerics are too fearful to speak to foreign media. But Lucy manages to contact one priest opposed to the war, who tells her that when trying to comfort grieving relatives of dead Russian soldiers, he can only say: “pray to God, the Lord is our hope, the Lord is comforting us.”