CHURCHES in Ukraine have urged the world’s Christian leaders to help to persuade Russia both to comply with humanitarian standards and to stop indiscriminately attacking civilians and torturing prisoners and deportees.
“The Russian Federation has significantly stepped up acts of terror and genocide, using a wide arsenal of missile armaments”, the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations said. The body includes the country’s Moscow-linked Orthodox Church.
“Russian officials do not hide their criminal desire to destroy the vital infrastructure of Ukrainian cities on the eve of cold winter in order to destabilise the socio-political situation, to sow fear and panic, and to minimise the ability of Ukrainians to resist Russian aggression. They seek to encourage the Ukrainian leadership to resume negotiations with an insidious, unprincipled enemy on his terms, to demonstrate the ostensible Western indifference to the problems and interests of Ukrainians — and, most importantly, to deprive the civilian population of its cherished right — the right to life.”
The appeal, addressed to the World Council of Churches (WCC), said that “barbaric and cynical attacks” with cruise missile and Iranian-made kamikaze drones on Ukrainian residential areas had no “military necessity”; they had left dozens of civilians killed and injured, while destroying schools, hospitals, communication centres, and electricity and water supplies.
It said that Russia had shown “demonstrative non-compliance” with the 1949 Geneva Convention in its treatment of POWs and non-combatants, and that Ukrainian Churches were seeking “all possible ways” to secure their release.
“We ask the WCC to appeal to Russian Federation officials concerning the necessity of complying with international humanitarian law,” the Ukrainian Council said.
“Thousands of our defenders and civilians are being held captive by the Russian invaders in terrible inhumane conditions, and subjected to severe torture, suffering, physical and psychological pressure. Russia does not provide any information about the fate of most, not even allowing Red Cross representatives to visit.”
The message was issued as Ukrainian troops closed in on the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, and as Moscow retaliated with further strikes against infrastructure targets.
Interviewed on the eve of his visit to Britain, the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, told the Pillar, a Roman Catholic American news agency, that he had made many “heated and fraternal appeals” to Russia’s Patriarch Kirill to distance himself from Moscow’s “political ambitions” and to stop supporting “unjustified bloodshed”, if necessary by resigning.
Preaching in Nizhny Novgorod on Sunday, however, Patriarch Kirill assured Russian troops that they were engaged in “not just another military campaign”, but would be protected by the Virgin Mary and St Seraphim of Sarov (1754-1833) in vanquishing “forces of evil” and those who had “taken up arms against Holy Russia”.
“Today, our Fatherland is experiencing trials as evil views, thoughts, and wills turn towards Russia — some believe the time has come when Russia can be done away with, because it presents an alternative view of the world, of God and man,” the Patriarch told listeners.
“Many have wanted to wipe Orthodox Russia from the face of the earth; so our special prayer is for our authorities, our army, and our president, for all those on whom the outcome of the battle that we entered against our will really depends.”
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said that its forces had liberated more than 90 settlements in the Kherson region last weekend. But, 86 per cent of Ukrainians, including those in Russian-speaking areas, said that their country should continue fighting despite the latest missile and drone attacks, in a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
The Pope invited religious leaders to join a special “Cry for Peace” day of prayer for Ukraine at the Colosseum, in Rome, on Tuesday, organised by the ecumenical Sant’ Egidio Community.
The Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, said that 32 enemy missiles had hit energy infrastructure targets in a single day, accompanied by more than 100 air and artillery strikes, leaving a further half-million citizens without electricity.
He added that mass civilian deportations were under way from Kherson — an entire orphanage had been moved to Russian-occupied Crimea. He was also concerned that Russia could attempt a new embargo on grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
The head of Ukraine’s independent Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Epiphany (Dumenko), paid tribute to Orthodox clergy who had died “defending Europe” from forces which again sought to plunge the continent “into the darkness of slavery and fear”.
Receiving an award at a conference in Krakow, he also thanked neighbouring Poland for “breathing new life into an understanding of Europe” by taking in and sheltering up to three million Ukrainian refugees.
“Morally, we have already won, because the truth is on our side — and where there is truth, there is God and victory”, Metropolitan Epiphany said. “Now, we must win on the battlefield, free our land from the occupiers, and begin our post-war reconstruction.”
In further challenges to the Russian Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Synod in Latvia declared itself fully autocephalous, or self-governing, last Friday. Patriarch Ilia of Georgia held special prayers for Georgian volunteers who had died fighting for Ukraine.
President Macron of France, who was in Rome in talks with the Pope, on Sunday accused the Russian Church of allowing itself to be “manipulated by those in power to justify their actions”. He praised religious leaders who chose “resistance when faced with the recklessness of these events”.