ROME— Ukrainian Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk has condemned Russia’s targeted attacks on Ukraine’s vital infrastructure prior to the arrival of winter.
As the Ukrainian army gets the upper hand in battle, inflicting heavy losses on the invaders, “the enemy takes revenge on the civilian population,” noted the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in a video message Monday.
Russian forces are attempting to “systematically destroy the infrastructure, in particular, that of the big cities of Ukraine, before the arrival of this year’s cold season,” the archbishop stated.
“Particularly brutal were the missile attacks on the city of Kharkiv where a large thermal power plant was hit that supplied heat and electricity to three regions of northeastern Ukraine: those of Kharkiv, Sumy and Poltava,” he said.
Moreover, some “4.6 million people have limited access to water due to the destruction of water supplies and due to power outages,” Shevchuk said, and “almost one and a half million people in Ukraine do not have access to drinking water.”
Along with the deplorable attacks on infrastructure, the Russian army is also waging war “against the Ukrainian people by destroying our cities and villages, killing women, children, the elderly and the civilian population of Ukraine,” the archbishop declared.
Over the past 24 hours, “18 missile attacks and 39 airstrikes were carried out against the peaceful population of our homeland,” he noted.
Despite these brutal attacks on civilians, the last days have seen a major turn in the war, Shevchuk remarked, with Ukrainian forces managing to liberate large swaths of terrain in the country.
In just a few days, “more than a thousand square kilometers of our Ukrainian land have been liberated,” he said, and since September 1 “more than three thousand square kilometers have been de-occupied.”
“We thank the Lord God for giving us the opportunity to rebuild a peaceful life in those devastated, destroyed territories where the whirlwind of war has brought enormous damage,” he said.
“God, bless Ukraine. Bless our Ukrainian people,” he prayed.
“Give us the opportunity to build our state on truth, on justice, teach us to respect the right of the other person. Bless our homeland with your just heavenly peace,” he said.