ROME — The redoubtable Ukrainian Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk expressed hope Monday that despite the Russian onslaught, Ukraine will see victory in the end.
“Ukrainians are growing in confidence that we are defeating our enemy every day with our resilience,” Archbishop Shevchuk said in his video message. “We know that there are different kinds of victories. To endure, to persist—this is also one of the types of victory, in particular in spiritual struggle.”
In his message, the archbishop also insisted that faith in God is the backbone of the Ukrainian people and that which gives them the strength to resist evil.
“Due to the fact that the Ukrainian people are a believing people, because we believe in God, we are strong and invincible,” Shevchuk said. “Because we are strong in the power of God, we have the ability to be victorious, to defeat the enemy, and to stand our ground.”
“O God, strengthen our faith!” and “bless Your believing people!” he prayed. “Give us faith in the victory of Ukraine.”
The archbishop noted that as of Monday, Ukraine had already experienced 96 days “of the great and bloody war that Russia is waging against the Ukrainian people.”
“And we thank the armed forces of Ukraine and the Lord God for being able to live the last day and the last night, and that we can see the sun, the light of this Monday morning,” he said.
As he often does, Shevchuk also offered a firsthand update on the state of the ongoing conflict with Russia.
“Our military is courageously defending its land but the Russians use all kinds of weapons, aircraft, artillery, and all the other deadly weapons invented by man today,” he stated. “The situation is difficult in other parts of the Donetsk region, but we are sincerely impressed by the courage and resilience of our Ukrainian army.”
The Russians have also carried out strikes on the city of Mykolayiv in the Odesa region, and territories in the north on the border with Russia are constantly being shelled, he said. “The city of Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region came under fire, the Sumy region, the Chernihiv region.”
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