Video-message of His Beatitude Sviatoslav March 29, 2022.

Tuesday, 29 March 2022, 19:12
Glory to Jesus Christ! Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

Today is Tuesday 29 March 2022 and Ukraine is experiencing the thirty-fourth day of this terrible, bloody war that the Russian army brought to the peaceful lands of our homeland Ukraine.

Our cities and villages trembled again from the bombs and explosions. Once more innocent blood was shed this day.

But Ukraine stands. Ukraine is fighting. Moreover, the Ukrainian army liberates our cities and villages and with its courage the Ukrainian people amaze the whole world, with their readiness to fight, with their strength the Ukrainian people really feel that this war is a patriotic war, although it is undesirable and senseless. But we fight and defend our people and our homeland.

These days, we have seen the horror left by the occupier in our towns and villages, particularly after their liberation. Destruction, devastation, not only mutilated buildings, but also mutilated human destinies, mutilated bodies of those who were tortured, who were abused.

Today, the city of Mariupol is known throughout the world and continues to defend itself. However, no humanitarian aid could be delivered to this city in these days. No humanitarian corridors have been opened since yesterday, meaning that many people in the surrounding towns and villages had nothing to eat. They starved to death, not just from bullets from the invader.

Various voices full of weeping and despair appeal to me, in particular, from those who are forcibly deported from Ukrainian soil. We have heard about such deportations of residents of the Mariupol suburbs and the occupied quarters of this city. But the same is happening in cities such as Maryanka, Volnovakha, and other cities and villages of Donbas. The cities and villages that have become ghost towns. People are forcibly deported to Russia, their passports are confiscated, they are issued temporary documents and taken to the island of Sakhalin in the far east of Russia, where they are not allowed to leave this designated place of exile for two years. We see that just as entire nations were deported from their lands under Stalin, the same is being repeated today on Ukrainian soil.

I call on the whole world to stand up for our Ukrainian people in the ways that you can, so that Ukrainians can live on their native Ukrainian land. And so that no one might drive them into captivity as they have been for centuries. 

Today we are also continuing our spiritual Lenten journey. And anyone who tries to fight sin and his evil understands that the devil is begins by threatening and intimidating. The devil wants to do everything to lead man astray from the path of righteousness. Therefore, in order to do good, one must be brave. In order to follow the path of truth, one must have courage.

Today I want to call on all our listeners, all those who hear the voice of Ukraine and beyond: Do not be afraid to do good! Do not let the devil intimidate you, to lead you astray from the path of Christian and universal righteousness! Today, Russia is a threat to all those who want to do good to Ukraine. Do not be afraid! Do not be afraid to do good! Do not be afraid to be in solidarity with those who suffer! Because good has its own power, which will always be victorious. Stand with Ukraine. Make your choice, do good! Let us fight fear before the devil and he will flee from us. And the truth will shine in all its power and beauty.

O God, bless Ukraine! O God, bless the Ukrainian people! O God, bless those who mourn, those are infirm, crippled, deported, and dying from hunger. O God, bless Ukraine!

May the blessing of the Lord be upon you through His grace and love for humankind, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

PUBLICATIONS

We can imagine what the prayer of the prisoners in the Russian torture centers in the Ukrainian Kharkiv region was like – Head of the UGCC on the 206th day of the war 17 September

A vast cemetery, a mass burial, was found near the city of Izyum, in which more than 400 innocently killed and tortured people have already been...