(OSV News): “Every time we are attacked, someone suffers,” Sister Lucia Murashko of the Basilian Sisters’ Holy Trinity said on October 22. As Russia intensifies its strikes on Ukraine, the congregation situated in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia are asking for prayers and charitable support for those they serve.
The Basilian Sisters—who have communities in native Ukraine, Argentina, Croatia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and the US—have become known for their tireless efforts to aid Ukrainian refugees and internally displaced persons amid Russia’s brutal aggression, which continues attacks launched in 2014. The assaults on Ukraine have been named a genocide in two joint reports from the New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Sister Murashko along with fellow Basilian Sisters Yelysaveta Varnitska and Bernadeta Dvernytska have remained in place at their monastery less than 64 kilomtres from the front line.
Since September, Russia has doubled down on targeting the city of Zaporizhzhia, located in the Ukraine-held area of the oblast, or province, of the same name.
While the sisters’ monastery has so far been spared, the strikes, which are routinely aimed at civilian buildings, have directly impacted their loved ones.
“Some of our friends are very close to the damaged places,” Sister Murashko said.
Cellphone pictures she shared with OSV News show Zaporizhzhia-area homes and civilian structures completely demolished by Russian weapons, including guided bombs, also known as “glide bombs.”
Yet the Basilian Sisters—who in February received the 2023-2024 Lumen Christi Award, the highest honour conferred by the Chicago-based nonprofit Catholic Extension, in part for their ministry in Ukraine—are steadfast in their desire to bring material and spiritual aid to their community, said Sister Lucia.
“It is terrible. The war is terrible. Please continue to pray for us,” Sister Murashko said.
