Trump’s Pastor at Kryvyi Rih Attack Site: ‘The World Must Condemn This Brutality’

Pastor Mark Burns, spiritual advisor to US President Donald Trump, visited the site of the Russian April 4 missile strike on Kryvyi Rih - President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown - which killed 20 people, including nine children.

“A Russian missile struck Kryvyi Rih, killing 16, including 6 children. A tragic loss of innocent lives. The world must condemn this brutality and stand with Ukraine against such terror.” Burns wrote on X on Sunday, April 6.

“Faith is a choice, not a feeling!” he concluded.

Burns was speaking before the latest casualty update on the missile strike that says 20 were killed, including nine children, and injured 74 others.

On April 6, a number of Western embassies in Ukraine lowered their flags in memory of the victims. That night another multiple Russian missile strike was launched against the Ukrainian capital which killed one man and injured three others.

Last week Burns traveled to Bucha, Irpin, and Borodianka in the Kyiv region – cities that had been occupied by Russia at the start of the 2022 full-scale invasion. According to UIkraine’s Chief Rabbi Moshe Reuven Asman, who accompanied Burns on the visit, the pastor was deeply shocked and outraged by what he witnessed, after having heard firsthand testimonies from survivors.

“He was deeply affected by what he saw – he did not hide his pain, indignation, and sincere sympathy.”

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Burns is well-known vocal supporter of Trump and has repeatedly asserted that it is Trump alone who can bring the war in Ukraine to an end.

In 2016, Time magazine titled him “Donald Trump’s Top Pastor” and included him in the list of the “16 People Who Shaped the 2016 Election.”

Burns is the co-founder and CEO of The NOW Television Network, a Christian TV network based in South Carolina. After serving six years in the South Carolina Army National Guard, he founded The Harvest Praise & Worship Center, a multicultural, interdenominational church in Easley. He is the father of seven adult children.

In 2024, Burns ran for the US House of Representatives in South Carolina’s 4th congressional district, having previously unsuccessfully run in Republican primaries in both 2018 and 2022.