ROME, Italy —Ukrainian Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk marked 109 days of Russian aggression Sunday, declaring that the “beast is breaking its teeth” on Ukrainian courage.
“Ukraine and the Ukrainian people have been resisting the full-scale Russian invasion for 109 days, the war of the grief and disaster that the Russian aggressor brought to our lands,” Archbishop Shevchuk said in a video message to the world.
The archbishop reported that the most intense fighting continues to take place in the Luhansk region, which is now defended by the Ukrainian army, and the Russians “can do nothing with large forces.”
“This beast is breaking its teeth on the Ukrainian courage of the sons and daughters of Ukraine who are defending their homeland,” he declared.
A Donetsk People’s Republic militia’s multiple rocket launcher fires from its position not far from Panteleimonivka, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People’s Republic, eastern Ukraine, Saturday, May 28, 2022. Day after day, Russia is pounding the Donbas region of Ukraine with relentless artillery and air raids, making slow but steady progress to seize the industrial heartland of its neighbor. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)
In Sievierodonetsk, however, “Russians are destroying entire streets in order to move forward,” he stated. “Neighboring towns, seeing these atrocities, are truly frightened and many people even at the last minute decide to leave their homes.”
Ukrainian soldiers carry the coffin of Roman Tkachenko, aged 21 who was killed fighting the Russian invasion near Kharkiv on June 04, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
“This evacuation is so important and necessary to save the local population, but it is very difficult and difficult in these circumstances,” he added.
Meanwhile, in the south of Ukraine, in the Kherson region, “our Armed Forces are liberating the occupied towns and villages, moving forward to free our brothers and sisters from the yoke of Russia,” Shevchuk said. “Our people meet their liberators with tears in their eyes.”
The Russian forces are continuing with their “missile terrorism,” he reported, and on Saturday “a rocket attack was carried out on Western Ukraine, on the city of Chortkiv, which is the seat of the bishop of our Buchach Eparchy.”
On Sunday, the Greek Catholics celebrated the Christian feast of Pentecost, commemorating the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles.
“We pray that on this day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit will renew us by the grace of the Holy Spirit,” the archbishop said. “The fire that rested on the apostles today burns in our hearts and calls us to overcome evil by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit.”
“On this day of Pentecost, when the earthly ruler, when the mad ruler of this world brings sorrow to Ukraine and steals our lives, we say in prayer, ‘Heavenly King, Advocate, Spirit of Truth, come and dwell within us, and cleanse us of all that defiles us, and, O Good One, save our souls,’” he said.