In a March 24 message, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, pleaded for besieged Mariupol.

“Mariupol is covered with the lifeless bodies of hundreds, thousands of people who have no one to bury them,” he said. “Today, this city needs humanitarian corridor. It needs even the international community to help break through the siege and bring humanitarian goods, which we have, to those who are slowly dying of hunger today.”

“Last week, these people survived on snow that was melting and could thereby have drinking water,” the Major Archbishop added. “Today there is no more snow in Mariupol. Let us save this City of Mary!”