Papal Envoy in Ukraine: ‘The Russians Shoot Anything that Moves’

ROME — The papal envoy to Ukraine, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, reportedly came under gunfire this weekend as he traveled to the front line of battle bringing foodstuffs and other humanitarian aid.

“We went to the border, to the war zone. We loaded a van and went right there where no one goes except soldiers,” Cardinal Konrad Krajewski reported of his trip in Zaporizhia.

“There are always Russians, but also people who have stayed there and who, for various reasons, have not left, some 4 thousand people,” said the Polish-born cardinal, who was accompanied by a Catholic Bishop, a Protestant Bishop, and a Ukrainian soldier.

The people had been alerted that the cardinal was coming with food and gathered at a place indicated by the soldiers. “We went to them. They knew where to meet,” Krajewski added.

“It is difficult to enter the war zone because there are no laws, no rules,” he said. “The Russians shoot anything that moves.”

The cardinal said his entourage was warned of the dangers and told to simply leave the food and exit quickly, but they still fell under fire from the Russians.

“It is good that there was a soldier with us, who told us where to run,” Krajewski said, “because for the first time I did not know which way to run.”

Also this weekend, four healthcare workers reportedly died in a Russian bombing during an evacuation of a hospital in the Kharkiv region. According to the head of the regional state administration, Oleg Sinegubov, doctors were trying to evacuate patients from a psychiatric hospital in the village of Strileche, when the Russians began shelling the hospital.

Along with the four health workers who died, two of the patients were injured by the strike, Sinegubov said.

Cardinal Krajewski began his Ukrainian visit last week in Odessa, then moved on to Zaporizhzhia. His final stop will be in Kharkiv. This is his fourth journey to Ukraine since the war began.

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