OSV News
“I’m sitting at home in my coat in the freezing cold—and while some food is available, there’s no light or heating,” Bishop Jan Sobilo of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia, said. He has become used to missiles flying over his house. Like thousands of people in his diocese, he also has to get used to record low temperatures inside his residence.
Auxiliary Bishop Sobilo said that despite worsening conditions following Christmas and the start of the new year, the people in war-torn eastern Ukraine are determined to fight on.
Although they are shelled and shot at constantly, with casualties mounting on both sides, “people remain determined to fight on till victory,” he said.
The bishop spoke as heavy fighting continued around Bakhmut and Soledar in Ukraine’s partly Russian-occupied Donetsk region, with missile and drone attacks reported in multiple towns.
In a January 11 interview with OSV News, he said humanitarian needs had spiraled with the persistent disruption of power and water supplies and as less aid reached eastern areas because of winter conditions.
Those most afraid have already left, while those who remain insist they’ll continue supporting our troops, whatever form the offensive takes
Bishop Sobilo
He added that Catholics were still attending Mass in Zaporizhzhia and other towns, despite transport difficulties and fears fresh Russian troops were being readied for a major new offensive, this time against Kyiv.
“Those most afraid have already left, while those who remain insist they’ll continue supporting our troops, whatever form the offensive takes,” Bishop Sobilo said.
“We’ve welcomed news that heavier and more powerful military equipment could soon reach us from the West. This has raised hopes of eventual victory, especially if it ensures the occupiers won’t reach central Ukraine and perhaps continue from there to Western Europe,” the bishop added.
During his January 11 visit to Lviv in western Ukraine, Polish president, Andrzej Duda, announced that Poland would deliver 14 Leopard tanks to Ukraine as part of a broader international coalition. The move has yet to get international permits and German approval for re-export, because the tanks are German-produced, but the Ukrainian side was pleased by the announcement.
Pope Francis urged Catholics not to “forget about long-suffering Ukraine, which is always in our hearts,” during his January 11 general audience at the Vatican. He added that the country’s “severe suffering” needed “affection, closeness and prayer.”
Every inch of this wounded earth is covered, soaked, drenched with human blood—today, Soledar is a picture of Russian madness as they try to achieve political goals by military means, completely disregarding the lives and dignity of their soldiers
Archbishop Shevchuk
Meanwhile, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, confirmed in a January 10 national message that Christmas had raised hopes for a “victorious new year,” as Ukrainians “lived, fought and celebrated the Savior’s coming into the world.”
However, he added that Russia’s tactic had been to shell “places where citizens usually congregate, such as markets,” and said that Soledar had already been wiped out, leaving “its surroundings covered with mountains of corpses.”
Archbishop Shevchuk said, “Every inch of this wounded earth is covered, soaked, drenched with human blood—today, Soledar is a picture of Russian madness as they try to achieve political goals by military means, completely disregarding the lives and dignity of their soldiers.”
Photo: CNS/Murad Sezer, Reuters
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government continued moves against Orthodox communities that claim loyalty to Russia’s Moscow Patriarchate. Legislation passing through the parliament in Kyiv would ban Churches affiliated with Moscow, which Zelenskyy said is necessary to keep Moscow from weakening Ukraine “from within.”
Ukrainian media said the citizenship of two bishops and 11 other clergy had been suspended after recent police raids on Moscow-linked Orthodox properties, while Orthodox Metropolitan Varsonofy [Stoliar] of Vinnitsa-Bar faced up to eight years in prison for “publicly justifying Russian armed aggression.”
Bishop Sobilo said he remained in close contact with Catholic priests and parishioners across the Diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia, and he observed how the war had forged closer links among Christians of all denominations.
But the main interest of Catholics is for Orthodox Christians to find ways of living peacefully together, in a spiritual sphere freed from politics
Bishop Sobilo
“Many Orthodox resent the position adopted by their own Church, and are shocked its leader has supported the war and engaged politically with it,” the bishop said.
“But the main interest of Catholics is for Orthodox Christians to find ways of living peacefully together, in a spiritual sphere freed from politics,” he said. “Many are already looking at their situation differently, and we hope this opens up a new sphere of dialogue and common life among Catholics and Orthodox across the Ukrainian lands.”
Addressing diplomats accredited to the Holy See, the pope said January 9 that the conflict in Ukraine, “with its wake of death and destruction,” offered “the closest and most recent example” of how a “third world war” was now taking place “in a globalised world.”
He said attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure had caused deaths “not only from gunfire and acts of violence, but also from hunger and freezing cold,” and said Church teaching viewed the “indiscriminate destruction of whole cities” as “a crime against God and humanity.”
The pope told the diplomats, “Today, I feel bound to renew my appeal for an immediate end to this senseless conflict, whose effects are felt in entire regions, also outside of Europe, due to its repercussions in the areas of energy and food production.”
Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, the Latin-rite archbishop of Lviv, said, “We are very grateful to the Holy Father for his closeness.” He said the closeness, he stressed, is shown not only by words, but also by special envoys such as Konrad Cardinal Krajewski, head of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, who has already visited the war-torn country several times.
Archbishop Mokrzycki said the Church distributes humanitarian help but above all is there “with sacraments and with support to the suffering nation—thanks to our prayers and our presence in the society, people do not lose hope.”
