Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk expressed his “heartfelt condolences to all those who are burying their relatives who were killed by the Russian criminal hand”, after the largest missile attack of the war in Ukraine to date.
The overnight attack on 29 December killed 31 civilians and wounded more than 160 others in Kyiv, Lviv and elsewhere.
“We send our love and deep concern to all the wounded, all those who have lost their homes, and who are grieving and crying,” said Archbishop Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, in a message on 30 December.
“In prayer today, we say eternal glory to those who gave their lives for their homeland. Eternal memory to the sons and daughters of Ukraine who died during this territorial attack.”
The Archbishop of Lviv Ihor Vozniak condemned “the heinous terrorist attack of the Russian military on the civilian population”.
“The perennial enemy does not relinquish its intention to destroy us,” he said. “Every day in our churches, we pray that the Lord will support the soldiers and bring them victory. When the entire world glorifies the new-born Child, the enemy rages and kills the innocent.”
On 1 January, Shevchuk led a Panakhyda, an eastern rite funeral prayer, for the victims in Kyiv and “for all victims of this war on Ukrainian soil”.
The Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations (UCCRO) issued a statement following the attack, calling on “all states of the world that declare respect for the value of human life and international law to condemn the actions of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, recognise Russia as a terrorist state, and provide Ukraine with the necessary means to protect life”.
It also said that international religious bodies should “consider the issue of the moral and other forms of responsibility of the Russian Orthodox Church, which through all conceivable means supports the Russian aggression against Ukraine” and “incites genocide of the Ukrainian people”.
The UCCRO compared its conduct to the Dutch Reformed Church’s support for apartheid South Africa, calling for corresponding sanctions against the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Ukrainian Catholic Church, along with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, marked Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar for the first time in 2023.
In his Christmas Day sermon on 25 December, Shevchuk celebrated “settling the various calendar disputes of the past” but remembered “our brothers and sisters in Crimea and the occupied territories – places where Christmas is not yet welcomed”.
The Moscow-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church has maintained the Julian calendar, celebrating Christmas Day on 6 January.
“Today, whoever hears the word Ukraine in Europe and the world sees a Ukrainian mother and a Ukrainian child,” said Shevchuk. “Today, in the face of a little child, the Lord God gives Ukraine a sign of hope in the Nativity of Christ.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who in July changed the date of Christmas by law to “abandon Russian heritage”, said in a public message on 25 December that all Ukrainian were now together in their celebrations.
Zelenskiy spoke to Pope Francis on 28 December, “to express gratitude for his Christmas greetings to Ukraine and Ukrainians, for his wishes of peace – just peace for all of us”.
In an online statement, the president said he has discussed Ukraine’s “peace formula” with the Pope. “I am grateful to the Vatican for supporting our work,” he said.
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