SUMMARY
In this powerful episode of Peace and Power Ukraine, former Miss Ukraine and global advocate Lika Roman shares an unfiltered look at Ukraine’s struggle for survival — from the 20,000+ children abducted by Russian forces to the persecution of pastors, the courage of frontline soldiers, and the quiet heroism happening in refugee camps across Europe. Roman discusses her meetings on Capitol Hill, the faith-driven movement pushing for action, miraculous stories from the earliest days of the invasion, and why Ukraine’s fight is about family, dignity, and the values that have defined free nations for generations. A compelling conversation for anyone seeking clarity, humanity, and hope in a brutal war.
The following article is taken by an episode of the podcast “Peace and War”, hosted by Gary Marx.
00:12 – Introduction and Guest Presentation: Lika Roman
Gary: Hello friends, welcome to Peace and Power Ukraine, a place to discuss all aspects of policy related to Ukraine. Ukraine sits at the crossroads of modern history, where East meets West and freedom collides with totalitarianism. Thank you for joining us during these unpredictable times. Where this week, we continue to wonder when Ukraine will begin to leverage new US intelligence cooperation to launch new offensive opportunities. And we wonder if President Trump really is understanding the impact of potential Ukrainian deep strikes into Russia. As always, I hope to bring you more light than heat as we dig a little deeper each episode with guests from across the public policy spectrum, all the way from the United States to Ukraine.
Today, I’m excited to be joined by Lika Roman. She is a public speaker, author, and former Miss Ukraine 2007. She’s known as an organizer and guest speaker at numerous international conferences, as well as radio and television programs. Working with the Kingdom Movement Church based in Vancouver, Washington, she joins us today in Washington in between meetings on Capitol Hill. It is so good to have you here with us today, Lika.
Lika: Thank you, thank you so much. So honored to be here.
01:31 – Advocacy for Stolen Children and Faith Communities
Gary: So tell us, you’ve been busy with meetings on the Hill and doing advocacy work for Ukraine. What has been some of your message today that you’ve brought with you to Washington?
Lika: As a believer in Jesus, we know that the most valuable thing we have is people and their lives, and especially children. We know around 20,000 children were stolen from Ukraine—only reported to the Ukraine government—but the numbers are much, much higher. So I was speaking to the hearts of Representatives about those kids. About what can we do for them to be the voice for the voiceless, because right now we are their voice. That was my main message and what is on my heart.
This initiative was originally presented by the faith community to the Congress. I want to join and help. I was also representing all the believers and pastors on the East of Ukraine who were tortured and imprisoned, and their churches were taken from them on occupied territories. There is no freedom of faith there. A lot of them are my friends and I know them personally, firsthand, so I can talk about it.
Gary: This is very personal. And like you said, that 20,000 number is just a starting point. The Yale Labs have done a study and they feel like it’s closer to 35,000. And then of course, no one really knows because in the occupied territories there’s 1.6 million children. We don’t know what has been done by these occupiers and it really seems like this is a modern-day genocide that the world hasn’t paid attention to.
Lika: Yes, we don’t know. They could be sex trafficked or even worse, and we can’t do anything with that. It’s not only numbers; it’s the names of the kids, it’s their stories. Also, 80% of those kids have parents or family members who are waiting for them in Ukraine. Can you imagine how it is to be separated and not know what is happening with their kids? It’s heartbreaking.
04:29 – Melania Trump, Miss Ukraine 2007, and the Queen Esther Inspiration
Gary: I have been encouraged though to see the US Senate move forward recently on this issue, and First Lady Melania Trump has really pushed forward into the diplomatic sphere in a way that she’s never been during her first term. That’s been very powerful. I guess as a former Miss Ukraine, seeing Melania who’s been in the beauty pageant world, is there some kindred spirit there?
Lika: Oh yes, definitely. I am dreaming to maybe one day join forces and maybe somehow with Ukrainian women to help her in this work and to make a difference for more children. Because she has this amazing power and opportunity position to change their lives. So I am praying for her and praying that she will have even more success.
Gary: She’s already had some direct success, I think 8 children were released directly because of her, and I don’t think she’s given up this issue at all. She’s going to continue to be an advocate for this. So, your story began in Uzhhorod, under the Iron Curtain and during the time of communism. Tell us about your story and where it began in Ukraine.
Lika: My story is interesting and unique because I never pursued a modeling career before and never participated in any beauty contest. That’s why a lot of media call my story a Cinderella story. I was born in a little city, Uzhhorod, on the west of Ukraine right at the border with Slovakia, and was raised by my mom. At eight years old I received Jesus into my heart. When I was 14 years old, I started having this call in my heart that there must be something more. What was God’s dream when He was creating me? Because I believe that each one of us is created with a purpose and with love, that God gave us a mission on this earth.
When I was 21 years old, I was studying International Relations at university and also working in a beauty salon as a hairdresser. One day, a lady came to our beauty salon, I did her hair, and two weeks later she called me. She said, “Lika, I saw something really special in you because you have beauty not only outside but inside. I want you to bring this to the beauty sphere and I want to invite you to participate in the National Beauty Contest.”
I almost said no, because I had rejected the modeling business before. I had two contracts to go to Japan to make big money, but I didn’t have peace in my heart, so I didn’t go. But she asked me to think and to pray, and I did. I felt peace in my heart, so I went to participate and I won that beauty contest.
Gary: I interrupt just because I’ve been reading about someone else who was in a beauty contest, someone who had never been in a beauty contest before. I was reading in the Bible about a young girl named Esther. Just this week that happened to be my reading, so it’s fresh in my memory. Do you have some kindred spirit with that story of Queen Esther?
Lika: Yes, it’s interesting. This story really inspired me a lot. Two months before the beauty contest, I didn’t have a clue that I would participate in something like that. I was reading the book about Queen Esther in the Bible and I was just weeping. Every word was touching me because she understood the reason why she was in the palace. She couldn’t miss it. She was a little girl and then she was a Queen, but she could have been killed for what she was asking the King.
It’s such a deep story. She really valued prayer and fasting. Before coming in front of the King, she asked all the nation, all her people, and herself to fast and pray to God. She understood her dependency on God. And then she was bold not to be silent for what she believed. She took the opportunity to speak no matter the cost. That really inspired me. When I received the crown, I knew it was for a reason. It’s not for me, it was for the reason that God gave me. It’s a responsibility. One day I will stand in front of God and give a report on what I did with what was given to me. I knew it’s such a great responsibility, but also I believe when God is sending us somewhere, He is also equipping us for this.
Next day I had an interview in the top media and millions of people watched it. I was speaking not from my wisdom, but from His wisdom. A lot of people were saying, “Lika, you are speaking not from your age, there is something more.” It was touching differently, changing hearts.
11:39 – Work Since the Full-Scale Invasion
Gary: So now you have the opportunity to be an advocate for Ukraine in front of Senators and Congressmen. What has that looked like over these past couple of years? Has it been just coming to Washington or has that work taken you around the world?
Lika: For the past three years, it was a lot connected to Ukraine. Before, I visited more than 40 countries speaking in different conferences, schools, and universities. But within these three years, it was a lot of helping Ukraine, bringing awareness about what is happening, partnering with organizations doing fundraising for Ukraine, and helping them to be effective on the field. I am connected with many people in Ukraine—top-level influential people, but also people on the ground because I was in full-time ministry. I visited almost every city of Ukraine, in Donbas and different regions. So I can connect people and they are trustworthy to do the work. It’s an amazing opportunity. But also helping Ukrainians outside of Ukraine, refugees, to find communities, to find God, to find help.
14:45 – The Start of the Invasion: Escape and Refugee Assistance
Gary: We all know that this conflict really began in earnest in 2014 with Crimea and the “little green men” in Eastern Ukraine. The world doesn’t really see it that way; they just know about the full-scale invasion. When that happened, did it surprise you? And how did you get involved after the full-scale invasion?
Lika: I lived in Kyiv for 14 years. On February 24th, I was supposed to speak at a youth conference in Melitopol. When I prayed, I didn’t feel peace inside of me; it was some worry. We already had the Russian army on our borders for more than a year near Melitopol. I didn’t go to speak at that conference. I called the pastor and asked if they were still doing the conference, and they said yes.
I was in Uzhhorod when the full-scale invasion happened. I called the pastor and he said, “Yeah, we are in a bomb shelter.” Next day he was imprisoned by Russian soldiers because Melitopol was occupied within two days. If I had been there, I would have been imprisoned too because they were imprisoning everybody who had any position of influence in Ukraine.
Gary: As a former Miss Ukraine, as a leader, they would have absolutely targeted you.
Lika: Can you imagine? It would be horrible. God really protected me. We had information that they wanted to kill that pastor. It was all over the media and miraculously he was released. It was a miracle. He was not the only one; many pastors were trying to escape because they knew they were coming for their families, putting guns to their heads right in front of their children.
So we left Ukraine basically the first day of the war. I went to a little city on the border in Poland called Przemysl. It was a huge refugee camp. I joined the teams of a lot of international faith-based organizations that were helping at the border. I was helping at the refugee center with thousands and thousands of women with little kids. I was helping them not to be sex trafficked, connecting them with local pastors and local nonprofits in Europe.
I remember asking one lady, “Where are you going?” Somebody raised a sign “Berlin” and she said, “Berlin.” She had two little kids. I asked, “Do you know somebody in Berlin?” She said, “Never been there.” I asked why she was going and she said, “Because it’s the first bus that is scheduled.” I gave her my number and said to call me if something happens.
I had crazy stories. People got into a bus accident, a completely destroyed bus with 50 people. Miraculously they were alive but stranded in the middle of nowhere in Lithuania. They sent me their location saying someone wanted to take their kids because they couldn’t stay in the hospital with injuries like broken spines. I connected them with a Christian rehab center in that city and they could take care of the kids.
18:59 – Miracles and Resistance
Gary: The world assumed that Kyiv would be overrun. That’s not what happened. There were so many military victories that were surprising. There really were so many miracles as well. There were rising flood waters that wiped out Russian positions in the north of the city and stopped that advance. From a spiritual side, because of your faith, you’ve seen that time and time again.
Lika: Yes, it’s fair to say. We were constantly praying 24/7. Churches were praying because it was our only hope. We knew God will help us or we will be destroyed, our identity as a nation will be destroyed. But God gave us miracle after miracle. Even my friends were saying it’s impossible what is happening. It’s impossible how God protected us. There was a story of two people and five tanks moving on them, and somehow the tanks thought there were many people waiting for them and they didn’t come to that particular side of Kyiv.
It was my friends with whom we were drinking coffee a few days before the invasion, and then they were defending Kyiv a few days later. It was simple people, believers, different people who were standing. But we know that angels of God were standing there with us.
20:49 – Personal Motivation: Family on the Frontlines and Values
Gary: I have a brief story. I had a great-uncle who was a pilot in World War II. He was on his 23rd mission leaving England to bomb Berlin. On takeoff, his plane crashed in the fog and all the crew were lost. This year, 80 years later, we will travel as a family to that site in England. This motivates our family to honor his legacy. I can’t imagine how motivating it must be for you with cousins on the frontlines, friends that have been lost. Is that something that gives you a lot of your motivation to be an advocate for Ukraine?
Lika: Yes, it definitely makes an even more impact on your life when somebody from the family is already there. In Ukraine, the war touched basically every family. Somebody is fighting or somebody has died already. Even if you don’t have anybody on the frontlines, when you see pictures of wounded soldiers or people who gave their lives… you see they are so young. It’s somebody’s husband, somebody’s son and father. It’s so impactful always for me.
In August, I had a chance to go to the military cemetery in Lviv and see some of the families grieving. It was so difficult for them. But I know you’ve been giving hope to some of those that have been wounded. We were talking beforehand about your work with international speaker Nick Vujicic. Help our audience have a picture into Nick and how that’s giving hope to wounded Ukrainian soldiers.
Lika: Even before the full-scale invasion, we had a lot of young guys who lost their limbs in the war in Donbas area. We organized a big event with Nick Vujicic. He was born without limbs and thought he would just be a burden for his family. But his life is impacting millions of people. He has a family, four kids, he’s snowboarding, swimming. He is living a very full and meaningful life. So we invited him and he was speaking, “If I can do that, you can do that too.” He is so whole in his heart and personality. He is a great example and became like a brother to me. He was so inspiring to many Ukrainians.
25:27 – Closing Thoughts: Values and Faith
Gary: Lika Roman, we so appreciate your message today. If there’s one thing we didn’t get to discuss that you want to leave our audience with today, what might that last thing be?
Lika: I think that many people think Ukraine has diverse people with different belief systems, like every country. But I want to say that we as Ukrainians value family. We value family values. A lot of people are conservative in their worldview. It’s also Russian propaganda narrative that Ukraine is only liberal and they are fighting against these liberal values. Which is not true; they are just destroying.
I met a lot of faith people and conservative people who had that narrative. I want to say as a representative from Ukraine: Yes, we have different people, but we believe in family, we believe in conservative values. And for many people, the foundation is faith. Ukraine is a Christian country. I just want to say this.
Gary: Thank you, Lika Roman. I so appreciate you being here and being an advocate for Ukraine in some of the most difficult places. We pray that you’ll be able to continue your work all around the world. We look forward to continuing to have great conversations with you. To our audience, none of this is possible unless we have you out there listening. So please like and subscribe, do all those things on YouTube and the various platforms for podcasts. We appreciate that and we’ll see you next time.
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