“Our personal victory over evil will be Ukraine’s victory in its invisible struggle against the devil: Head of the UGCC on Day 37 of the War

“During the past day and night, the Ukrainian land, its cities and villages, have been convulsing from air strikes. Our special prayers flow to Mariupol, which has been astounding the whole world with its resilience for a month now. It is truly a miracle on the shores of the Sea of ​​Azov.  Kharkiv and Chernihiv withstand heroically; our special prayers are with Kherson and heroic Mykolaiv,” says the Head of the UGCC.

His Beatitude Sviatoslav noted that the enemy was retreating under pressure from the Ukrainian troops, and Ukrainian towns and villages were being liberated. However, the enemy, having no success on land, is increasing its aerial strikes. Therefore, the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations is once again appealing to the world to help protect the Ukrainian sky, and thus save the lives of civilians in Ukrainian cities and villages, noted the primate.

He stressed that the struggle of the Ukrainian people against the aggressor has all the hallmarks of a spiritual struggle, because every full-scale war is accompanied by full-scale lies. According to him, today’s war is also attacking our minds, hearts and free will.

A spiritual struggle, he says, is characterized by the devil trying to influence our thoughts through intimidation and propaganda. Then, the hierarch continues, the person begins an inner dialogue with these sinful perceptions, resulting in a struggle within our minds and hearts. "Inside a person, there are street fights going on, with the evil that is trying to capture us. And then, if we stop resisting and give in, our will begins to consent to evil, and this becomes an internal occupation by sin, and the person is enslaved by sinful passion,” explained the Head of the UGCC.

He emphasized that in order to win this invisible struggle, we must first realize that we cannot dialogue with the devil, with sin. It must be rejected and conquered.

In order to resist the enemy’s ideology, -- to expel the devil first from our minds and hearts, and then from our homes and lands, -- we must begin by identifying the lie, and then resisting it with all our strength and will. Only then can we root it out, cast it out, and be free of it.    

“Let us pray for the Ukrainian army, for those who are fighting against the occupier! Let us support them with our prayers! We are waging our invisible struggle against untruth and all that is trying to paralyze our will and capture our inner spiritual world! Let us pray for Ukraine and resist the occupier and all evil! Let us root out evil from our hearts! Let us be Christians and people, even in the circumstances of war,” implored His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

The UGCC Department of Information