Lamenting a “sharp increase in the aggressive actions of the occupiers,” Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said on April 19 that “fighting has intensified. The number of weapons used these days is simply unmatched in the last decades since World War II.”

“In the days when the war is escalating, when the enemy has intensified its offensive on Ukraine, I call on everyone to attentive and unceasing prayer, to prayers for the Ukrainian army, because today the future is being decided—the fate of Ukraine and the fate of the world,” he continued.