In an April 25 message, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, deplored continued Russian attacks and said that “Mariupol cries out to the world: Stop this war! Do everything possible to save people’s lives!”

“The occupiers are dismantling our factories and enterprises en masse in the territories they have occupied,” he added. “They are then exported to Russia and they turn those plants into concentration camps where so-called filtering operations are carried out, some people are shot, others are deported to Russia, and others are forcibly mobilized into the Russian army.”

“O God, bless Ukraine,” he prayed. “O God, bless the Ukrainian army! O God, let each of us meet You, the Risen One, to know You, to believe in You, and to live in You and with You!”