In a statement issued on February 28—the fifth day of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine—Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said that “we have seen the atrocities and inhumanity of those who kill us. They put children and women on tanks and cover themselves with them like a human shield to bring death and destruction even deeper into the heart of Ukraine.”

The prelate paid tribute to the heroism of the soldiers and civilians, “how older people lay down under tanks to keep them out of their village and city, how people from all villages went out to close the road to tanks invading Ukraine.”

“Yet, we stand,” he continued, as he spoke from Kyiv and thanked Pope Francis and all who have supported Ukraine. “We stand in prayer for our army, for our Motherland, for our long-suffering Ukrainian people, in which today, according to the UN, there are almost 400,000 refugees in just five incomplete days.”