ROME — Ukrainian Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said Monday that Russia’s “cruel, bloody war brought untold suffering and pain to the Ukrainian people.”
In a video message, Archbishop Shevchuk marked the 173rd day of “a full-scale, heavy, bloody war” waged “by an unjust aggressor against our people, our state, and our homeland with his invasion.”
In particular, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church reached out to the thousands of “wounded … military servicemen, civilians, children, women moan day and night from the pain in their bodies.”
“Our Church wants to be close to you,” he said. “Know that in your hospital bed, in this bed of pain, you are not alone, the Lord God is with you. And your Church, your priests are also nearby.”
Shevchuk also expressed his gratitude to those who care for the wounded Ukrainians today as if they were their own.
He also thanked “all those who today accept Ukrainian children for treatment in various medical institutions in Europe and the world, who help with prosthetics [for] those who have lost limbs” as well as “those who send humanitarian cargoes to Ukraine with medicines and other means that can be used today to save human life and alleviate people’s suffering.”
“I want to especially thank you, dear brothers and sisters, who sympathize and take care of your relatives, who share their pain and grief with them,” he said.
“Let modern medicine and all the means of medical art open generously to those who were injured on Ukrainian soil and need qualified, urgent, medical assistance,” he exhorted.
As he has done on numerous occasions, the archbishop offered an update on the war, noting that at the moment the “heaviest battles are being fought in Donetsk region and Luhansk region” and currently “the city of Bakhmut is becoming the epicenter, the concentration of Russian troops and the line of their active offensive, which the Ukrainian army is heroically holding back.”
He also expressed his concern that “the enemy is attacking educational institutions,” which are preparing for the beginning of the academic year on September 1.
“But Ukraine is standing. Ukraine is fighting. Ukraine is praying,” he said.
Moreover, “Ukraine surprises the world not only with courage at the front, but also with humanity in relation to those who need human sympathy and need help,” he said. “Because Ukraine is fighting for the dignity of man and his right to life.”
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