PHILADELPHIA (OSV News) — The Russian drone attack on a kindergarten in Ukraine’s second-largest city is “yet another sign of the relentless barbarity of the Russian invaders,” said Metropolitan Borys A. Gudziak of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia.
“The moral clarity and the difference between the aggressor and the victim cannot be more clear,” he said in a statement to OSV News.
At least one person was killed and six wounded when Russian drones targeted a private kindergarten in Kharkiv, with children present in the building.
Amid the strike, which took place on 22 October at approximately 9 a.m. local time, teachers successfully led all 48 students to bomb shelters, according to Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said many children were “experiencing acute stress reactions” after the strike.
“There is no justification for a drone strike on a kindergarten, nor can there ever be,” said Mr. Zelensky, who called the strikes “Russia’s slap in the face to everyone who insists on a peaceful solution.”
The Kharkiv kindergarten attack came after an intense overnight bombardment by Russia, designed to cripple Ukraine’s energy grid as winter approaches, in which two people were killed and 29 injured in Kyiv. Four others — including a 6-month-old baby and a 12-year-old child — were slain in the capital’s surrounding region.
“It should become clear to all that Putin does not want peace,” said Archbishop Gudziak. “In [Russia’s] quest for conquest, the invaders stop at nothing
He also called on Russian Christians worldwide to denounce Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, which were initiated in 2014 before the full-scale invasion in 2022, and which have been described as a genocide in two joint reports from the New Lines Institute and The Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights.
“I ask all Russian Orthodox in the United States and globally to finally speak out unequivocally against this invasion,” said Archbishop Gudziak.
The Vatican has also underscored the urgency of the world uniting for peace in Ukraine, citing the dangers of atomic radiation posed by “the ongoing hostilities around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,” which Russian forces have occupied since March 2022.
The condition of the plant, the largest in Europe, has deteriorated under Russian occupation.
Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly on 22 October, Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, the Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations, pointed to “the grave dangers that arise when civilian nuclear infrastructure becomes entangled in war.
“The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned of the catastrophic consequences of a radiation leak from this facility, which would affect not only the Ukrainian population, but also neighboring countries and the global environment,” said Archbishop Caccia. “Urgent preventive measures must be taken to guarantee the safety of civilians and protect creation.”