“We are especially sympathizing with the city of Mariupol, where the real genocide is taking place. People are dying not only from weapons but also from the hatred of the enemy. Hundreds of people are dying of hunger in and around the city.”
His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church said this in his daily address on the 26th day of the Russian war against Ukraine.
The Head of the Church noted that thank God, we survived this night. The Lord allowed us to see the light of the day. But this night blood was shed again in Ukraine, our cities and villages were shaking again from the bombings. Screams, howls, and cries are heard again from the Ukrainian land, rising to the heavens, to the ears of God.
“On the temporarily occupied territories, the Primate says with pain, real crimes against humanity are being committed. We receive daily news about humanitarian catastrophes, murders, looting and rapes. But even there, in the south of Ukraine, peaceful people are protesting against the occupying power: people are protesting against rapists and murderers. People show that Kherson and other occupied cities are – Ukraine. They want to live in an independent Ukrainian free state”.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav is asking everyone to pray for the people who are forcibly deported to Russia because “again, we operate the facts of deportation of Ukrainian citizens to an alien country. None of us knows what fate is awaiting them there, because they do not decide for themselves what to do”.
He thanked all those who are called rescuers in Ukraine for their dedicated work. “These are our firefighters, as well as emergency services at various levels. What kind of courage and faith in the service you do you must have, if every day the infrastructure of our cities and villages is being bombed and destroyed, and these tireless heroes tirelessly and determinedly restore it every day”, he mentioned.
How important it is, according to the Head of the Church, that the whole world, the whole world community be like those rescuers who, despite the war, win back the space of life, who build peace and save lives of people in modern Ukraine, which is fighting.
