UKRAINIAN religious leaders have warned countries that trade with Russia that they must bear moral responsibility for “supporting murderers and terrorists”, after a weekend wave of missile and drone strikes killed and injured dozens of civilians.
A statement from the Council of Churches and Religious Organisations (UCCRO) in Ukraine said: “Once again, the Russian Federation, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has demonstrated its criminal, xenophobic nature and complete disregard for all UN member-states, except for dictatorial regimes.” UCCRO includes all the main Christian denominations, as well as Muslim and Jewish representatives.
“We call on leading democratic nations to provide Ukraine with effective air-defence and missile-defence systems, and to strengthen economic and political pressure on the Russian Federation to compel it to end its war of aggression.”
The statement was published after the 12-hour assault on at least 100 neighbourhoods. Ukrainian officials said that the strikes had killed a nurse and a patient at the Institute of Cardiology in Kyiv, as well as a married couple and their two young sons in the north-eastern Sumy region.
A statement from Moscow said that it had targeted industrial and military targets, and had shot down 81 Ukrainian drones the same night over five Russian regions.
UCCRO said that civilian infrastructure facilities, including hospitals and residential buildings, had been struck in the overnight attack, involving more than 500 drones and dozens of missiles.
“This terrorist attack on Ukraine was carried out by Russia during the very week when a new UN General Assembly session opened,” the Council said.
“We reiterate that any support for the Russian Federation — including trade and cooperation — is equivalent to supporting murderers and terrorists. Such actions entail not only moral responsibility but also accountability before God, the righteous judge.”
The attack occurred as the president of the European Commission, Dr Ursula von der Leyen, announced a new package of €2 billion (£1.7 billion) to help Ukraine to “scale up” its drone-warfare capacity. The Vice-President of the United States, J. D. Vance, confirmed that Kyiv could soon receive long-range Tomahawk missiles capable of reaching Moscow and other Russian cities.
Separately, the Greek Catholic Primate in Ukraine, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, said that his country had experienced “another hellish night” and that the war remained “the greatest crime against God and man”. It could never be “blessed by Churches”, he said, and expressed concern that Russian hostilities appeared to intensify, “the more diplomatic talks take place at the highest level”.
The Primate of the independent Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Epiphany (Dumenko), said that the weekend had been “filled once again with the sound of sirens and explosions”. He warned that God would “leave no one without due retribution”.
“The time of responsibility will come according to human and divine law — whoever showed no mercy will be punished without mercy,” he said in a sermon on Sunday.
“Instead of using their many God-given lands and gifts for good, the Russian people are squandering them, turning them into a satanic service, bloodshed and murder, the destruction of innocents.”
The Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, the Most Revd Paul Gallagher, addressed the UN General Assembly on Monday, and called on member countries to “reject the logic of domination and destruction”. He said that the war’s “prolonged duration” since February 2022 had turned “once vibrant cities into piles of ruins” and “extinguished the smiles of children who should be growing up playing”.
