On March 7—the twelfth day of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine—Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said that “today we are asking the world community to close the skies over Ukraine, because these are Russian cruise missiles which kill people in our lands the most.”

Major Archbishop Shevchuk also thanked “the Polish people, the Polish episcopate, and the Polish state. They have already accepted more than a million refugees, welcomed them to their homes, and are trying to do everything possible to provide the necessary assistance to these people.”