THE Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, has thanked the Pope for condemning attacks on civilians in his country, but has also warned against “many illusions” currently circulating about how to end the conflict while Russia refuses to “respect the customs of war” .
“Pope Francis said it is unacceptable to destroy infrastructure and bomb the civilian population — yet just as he was speaking these words, the Russians committed another crime in Zaporizhzhia, hitting a residential area with guided aerial bombs,” Archbishop Shevchuk said in a national message this week.
“It is known that 13 people died and about 120 were injured as a result of this strike. . . May the Pope’s words strike the conscience of every person of good will throughout the world.”
The Archbishop was reacting to the Pope’s appeal on 9 January to diplomats accredited to the Holy See (News, 17 January).
Attacks on civilian targets had, the Archbishop said, left children “freezing to death” as hospitals and energy supplies were destroyed. “It is our hope that it may be possible to put an end to the war this year — however, there are many illusions in the world about how this should be done,” he said.
“Our enemy seeks to interfere in every state’s internal affairs, and it will be the wrong way to stop this evil if you let it into your minds, enabling it to destroy political systems and economies with new forms of corruption and military intervention in hundreds of world conflicts. Evil should not be appeased — it can only be stopped.”
The Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia, the Rt Revd Jan Sobilo, confirmed in a statement that more than 330 bombs and drones had rained down on the eastern city on 9 January, hitting people on public transport or out on the streets.
The “terror in broad daylight” would, he said, strengthen the determination of Ukrainians to “fight to the end” by showing that “these are not people with whom you can sit down for negotiations.”
A bishop from Ukraine’s independent Orthodox Church, the OCU, Metropolitan Kliment (Kushch), criticised a recent United Nations report on Ukrainian religious-rights restrictions, and accused UN officials of “turning a blind eye” to the “greatest oppression” suffered by churches in Russian-occupied territories.
“From the first days of the occupation, with the support of paramilitary Russian security structures, they took away our Orthodox churches,” Metropolitan Kliment, who was badly beaten by street assailants last September, told a Kyiv press conference. His claims mirrored a report by Release International, which said that most non-Russian churches had now been seized.
“Everything Ukrainian is being destroyed in the occupied territories with utmost cruelty, with people imprisoned not just for Ukrainian flags and songs, but for merely speaking and thinking in Ukrainian. . . The destruction of our own OCU is itself a move to destroy the national identity.”
The exchanges took place as Ukraine launched its biggest counter-strike yet, last week, against targets in Russia, using Western-supplied missiles, and as Kyiv parliamentarians unveiled plans to declare an annual National Day of Prayer on 24 February, the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion.
Meeting a delegation headed by the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, on Tuesday of last week, representatives of the European Union, G7 states, and international financial institutions pledged “unwavering support” for Kyiv, and welcomed an outline of “reform commitments” for the coming year.
In an international appeal earlier this month, 160 Ukrainian public figures said that 2025 would bring “uncertainties and hopes”, and also urged world leaders not to make the mistake of “appeasing the aggressor” by seeking to freeze the conflict along current demarcation lines and requiring “territorial and sovereignty concessions” from Ukraine.
“Sustainable peace will only come when, under combined pressure from Ukraine and its allies, Russia faces a systemic crisis and the defeat of Putin’s regime,” the appeal said. It was co-signed by politicians, academics, writers, and civil-society activists, as well as prominent Christians.
“Russia’s defeat in its war of aggression will re-establish an order based on rules and the interdependence of responsible players. The security of global trade, nuclear energy and food security will be strengthened, while terrorist regimes and organisations will lose Russian support and weaken.”