CHURCH leaders in Ukraine have deplored Russian mass attacks on civilian targets across their country over the weekend. Hypersonic ballistic missiles were used against water facilities, markets, schools, and blocks of flats.
“Like many Kyiv residents, I spent the night sheltering from the frightening sound of explosions,” the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), Metropolitan Epiphany (Dumenko), said in a social media post on Sunday.
“May God help us through these terrible days, granting quick recovery to the wounded and rest to the souls of the dead. And may he destroy the evil Russian empire and all who cause suffering by shedding the blood of innocents.”
The Metropolitan was reacting to overnight attacks that struck 27 high-rise buildings in Kyiv, killed at least two civilians, and injured dozens.
Simultaneous Russian strikes wrecked a large Protestant church near Kharkiv, and a Jewish cemetery in Odessa, as well as a Roman Catholic church and study centre near the capital. Metropolitan Epiphany said that the selected targets had “no military importance”.
He thanked Western allies of Ukraine for enabling its defenders to “fight the enemy and defend peace in Europe”, and warned his country’s Moscow-linked Orthodox Christians that they risked “tasting blood and ashes on their lips” if they continued to pray for Patriarch Kirill of Moscow as their “lord and father”.
The European Union is expected to impose travel and financial restrictions on Kirill and other top-level Russian backers of the war in its latest sanctions package on 15 June, after the change of government in Hungary, which previously blocked the move.
In an address last week, Patriarch Kirill urged young military cadets to helpto make Russia “invincible” by being ready to die “in the name of the motherland and its people”. Preaching on Sunday in Christ the Saviour Cathedral, Moscow, he praised the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin for seeking reconciliation with surviving Orthodox leaders during the Second World War, and for enabling the Church to help to “consolidate the people and contribute to victory”.
During his General Audience on Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV expressed his dismay at the escalating violence: “I follow with concern the war in Ukraine, which has sharply intensified in recent days. I wish to express my closeness to all those suffering because of the recent attacks, including those against civilians.”
He continued: “War does not solve problems; it worsens them. It does not build security but multiplies suffering and hatred. Wherever missiles and drones fall, hopes also collapse; homes and places of worship are destroyed, and innocent lives are shattered.”
In an appeal in mid-May, the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) said that Russia had “flagrantly disregarded international humanitarian law” despite being a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The UCCRO urged tougher measures in the wake of the latest missile and drone assaults.