UKRAINIAN church leaders have appealed for just measures to end the invasion of their country. It was under heavy bombardment from Russia over the Christmas period while President Zelensky was in the United States for talks.
“[A] meeting of presidents will take place on the other side of the globe,” the contry’s Greek Catholic Primate, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, said in a sermon on Sunday.
“Let the modern creators of history stand on the right side, protecting human life from modern-day Herods — and let us pray that those who make fateful decisions will be inspired by the Holy Spirit not to start wars, but to stop them.”
The Archbishop preached as President Zelensky met President Trump at his Florida residence to discuss a US-brokered 20-point peace plan for ending the four-year war.
In a homily for Christ’s Nativity, the Primate of the Ukrainian independent Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Epiphany (Dumenko), also compared Russia’s rulers to King Herod, who had used “ostentatious, external religiosity” to conceal a “rejection of God’s truth”.
He went on to say that divine retribution was “inevitable” for those who continued to abduct Ukrainian children and rape Ukrainian women, and for Patriarch Kirill, who had “blessed war, crimes, and murders” from the pulpit.
“In our time, we see how followers of ‘Russian World’ teachings are becoming like Herod and other hypocrites — building and lavishly decorating grandiose temples and magnificently performing religious rites, while at the same time destroying, robbing, and killing,” Metropolitan Epiphany said.
“Just as Herod feared and had no need of a living Messiah, so the Kremlin tyrant and his subordinate patriarch do not need to know God’s will, Gospel teachings, or the Lord’s commandments.”
Moscow continued to pound Ukrainian cities over Christmas in an apparent effort to weaken Kyiv’s negotiating position, and claimed to have captured two front-line towns, although this was denied by Ukrainian commanders.
Speaking on Sunday evening, President Trump said that the “making of a deal” was in sight, and that he would talk to President Putin for the second time in two days after his negotiations with Zelensky.
Meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV told journalists that he was “greatly saddened” that Moscow had “apparently rejected” his request for a Christmas truce. In his Christmas Day homily, he called on negotiating parties to “find courage to engage in sincere, direct and respectful dialogue” with support from the international community.
In an “open letter to the American people”, Franciscan RC Bishop of Odesa, the Rt Revd Stanislav Shyrokoradiuk, said that he had “always felt support from America” while enduring persecution under Soviet rule, but could no longer trust those who took the side of Moscow “rather than of the victim”.
“With great pain in our hearts, we have watched the intense pressure exerted by representatives of the American government on the President of Ukraine, to force him to agree to reward the Russian aggressor,” the Bishop wrote. His southern port city faced heavy attacks on its housing blocks, factories, and energy supplies over Christmas.
“For millions of people killed, for cities and villages destroyed, for children deported, and for countless other horrors of war, Ukraine is expected to give additional territories . . . and to believe at the same time in guarantees of future security”.
In a statement, members, from both parties, of the US Senate Committee on International Relations denounced President Putin for ordering “brutal crimes” over Christmas. They listed attacks on Donetsk, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Odesa, Sumy, and Kryvyi Rih. Mr Putin had “no interest in peace” and could not be trusted, their statement said.
The Religious Information Service in Ukraine welcomed the prominent part played during the King’s Christmas Day broadcast by a British-based Ukrainian choir, the Songs for Ukraine Chorus. They sang in Westminster Abbey a new arrangement of the Carol of the Bells by the early-20th-century Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych.