THE Primate of Ukraine’s independent Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Epiphany (Dumenko), has urged Moscow-linked Orthodox communities to break free of Russia’s “spiritual yoke”, as a brief truce in missile strikes ended in new mass attacks this week.
“We call on our brothers and sisters who still look back to Moscow and its patriarchate out of habituation and fear of spiritual freedom — look at the fruits of this Russian measure, the suffering and ruin it brings, the contempt it shows for you and the sanctuaries in which you pray,” Metropolitan Epiphany said in a social-media post.
The appeal was issued after Russian drones damaged Kyiv’s early medieval Pechersk-Lavra monastery, the largest in Eastern Europe, as well as the 19th-century Holy Dormition (Assumption) Monastery in the southern port of Odesa, both run by Ukraine’s Moscow-linked UOC.
The Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) said on Tuesday that more than 700 religious sites had now been damaged in Russian strikes, and that more monuments were at risk of damage, as a result of “explosive and vibrational” shockwaves.
“Barbaric attacks on the cultural and religious heritage of Ukraine and the world are attacks on identity, historical memory and freedom of conscience — impunity in this sphere undermines the entire international system,” the UCCRO statement said.
“Severe consequences for Ukraine’s cultural heritage are caused not just by direct shelling, but also by the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the lack of heating and lighting and absence of proper conditions for protection and preservation.”
The attacks continued this week as 70 cruise and ballistic missiles and 450 drones struck power plants and civilian infrastructure in Kyiv and Kharkiv, leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity and heating in -20º temperatures.
Speaking on Tuesday, President Zelensky said that Moscow had appeared to have used an “energy truce”, agreed last week with President Trump, to stockpile equipment and prepare new strikes.
The Catholic Fund for Overseas Development (CAFOD) said that power cuts were now “a matter of life and death”, and had left Ukraine “on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe”, adding that Russia’s latest harsh attacks had “shattered hopes” for Wednesday’s planned tripartite peace talks in Abu Dhabi.
“Millions of Ukrainians have been forced to survive for months in temporary accommodation, sheltering in basements and stairwells, and living in constant fear of bombardment”, CAFOD’s Ukraine representative, Josie O’Reilly, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“People in Ukraine are showing incredible resilience and strength, but the impact of this conflict has reached inside families, too. Indiscriminate attacks have brought uncertainty and widespread personal loss, and caused psychological distress in thousands of homes, and in the millions displaced.”
