Plea to renounce ‘logic of weapons’ after Kyiv strikes

Pope Leo made an appeal after a series of strikes on Ukraine last week, including the second largest aerial attack since the Russian invasion in 2022.

The bombing of Ukraine demands “prayer and concrete gestures of charity” from around the world, Pope Leo said, urging “everyone not to give in to indifference”.

“I strongly reiterate my urgent appeal for an immediate ceasefire and a serious commitment to dialogue,” the Pope said in his address after the Angelus on Sunday. “Now is the time for those responsible to renounce the logic of weapons and take the path of negotiation and peace, with the support of the international community.”

His appeal followed a series of strikes on Ukraine last week, including the second largest aerial attack since the Russian invasion in 2022, while Ukrainian forces hit targets in Russia.

Ukrainian church leaders said the strikes on Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia and other towns showed the Kremlin regime’s “inhumane nature and its criminal, genocidal policy”. 

The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations (UCCRO) said Russia’s attacks on the night of 27-28 August, in which more than 20 people including four children died, “confirm its nature as a terrorist state” and demanded international condemnation. 

“Any support now extended to the Russian Federation is, in fact, support for murderers and criminals and carries with it undeniable moral responsibility,” the UCCRO said in a statement. “Money earned through business with Russia today is stained with the blood of innocent victims, and that blood cries out to heaven for just retribution.” 

In a post on social media, the primate of the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine Metropolitan Epifaniy compared Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to Herod, noting that last week’s attacks coincided with the Russian Orthodox celebration of the Feast of the Dormition. 

“On a day when Russians should be honouring the Mother of God, they instead bring more death and destruction, shedding the blood of innocents,” he said, praying for “God’s merciless judgment and punishment” on Putin.

Pope Leo asked Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe to relay his “spiritual love and closeness” to those gathered on 6 September to 650 years since the foundation of the Metropolitan See of Halić, the forebear of today’s Latin-rite Archdiocese of Lviv.

In a letter on Monday appointing Cardinal Sepe as his envoy to the celebrations, the Pope urged Christians “and all people of good will” to “cherish a living Christian hope in daily life” and to “ask God more fervently for the longed-for gift of peace”.

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