Ukrainians are facing “a winter where the aggressor seeks to use Mother Nature as an accomplice in state-sponsored terrorism,” Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishops said in a statement 23 February, one day before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“This winter, the harshest in years, has been deliberately exploited to break the spirit of a nation — men and women, military and civilians, grandparents, parents and children — standing for freedom, justice, democracy and God-given human dignity,” the bishops said.
“The genocidal intent is manifest,” they said.
Ukrainians refer to events in 2022 as Russia’s “full-scale invasion” because, in 2014, Russia occupied and annexed the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, situated within and governed by Ukraine, and Russian-backed militants seized towns in southeastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. Over a seven-year period, more than 14,000 people were killed in fighting in those regions.
However, on 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale air and ground assault against Ukraine, targeting Ukraine’s infrastructure.
“At least 2,881 attacks on health care [facilities] have been documented, affecting medical personnel, hospitals and clinics, ambulances and medical warehouses across the country,” the bishops said. Russian attacks also destroyed more than 400 schools and damaged more than 4,000 educational institutions, they said.
“More than 600 churches and places of worship, representing various denominations, have been damaged or leveled. Everywhere Russian occupation has taken hold, the Ukrainian [Greek] Catholic Church has been banned, and all religious confessions except the Moscow Patriarchate [of the Russian Orthodox Church] are persecuted.”
The bishops spoke of the torture of civilian prisoners and how “tens of thousands of children have been abducted and deported to Russia.” Last June, members of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee introduced a bipartisan resolution condemning Russia’s kidnapping of Ukrainian children and calling for their return before any peace agreement is finalized. In December, the U.N. General Assembly also passed a resolution demanding the return of Ukrainian children.
The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan nonprofit agency, reported in January that, at current rates, combined Russian and Ukrainian casualties since February 2022 “could reach 2 million by the spring of 2026.”
In their statement, the four bishops said despite all that Ukrainians have been through, the people in Ukraine “thank Americans and all people of good will throughout the world for their prayers.”
“Prayers move mountains. We may not know the name of the person whose life was saved because of our prayer, but people in Ukraine call out: ‘Thank you for praying.’ ”
The bishops also thanked those who have stayed informed about the war and who continue to advocate for peace.
The statement was signed by Archbishop Borys Gudziak, metropolitan of Ukrainian Greek Catholics in the United States; Bishop Paul Chomnycky of Stamford, Connecticut; Bishop Benedict Aleksiychuk of Chicago; and Bishop Bohdan Danylo of Parma, Ohio.
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