After four years of Russia’s war with Ukraine, Sister Lucia Murashko can detect an incoming missile from an attack drone.
Missiles, she said, aren’t noticed until their warheads strike targets. But drones are heard from afar, humming like airplanes.
The sound changing to a slower hum means the drone is shifting to attack mode.
Both weapons, Sister Lucia said, create thunderous and concussive blasts.
“Everything — the earth, the buildings, the windows — reacts to this energy,” she explained. “We call it an air wave, and it is also dangerous. If you sleep near the window, you can be cut by glass.
“We drive in the morning near the destroyed areas. You see all this dust, and it makes you think, ‘Why am I alive?’ and “Someone died here?’ That’s the grace of God.”
Sister Lucia’s community is the Sisters of the Order of St. Basil the Great of the Eastern Catholic rite. She is from the Ternopil region of western Ukraine, but she now ministers in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. Before the war, she was one of four Basilian sisters serving the local parish.
They participated in the care and upkeep of the church while also performing important tasks, like catechizing children and some adults. Sister Lucia specializes in serving children with disabilities.
“It was a peaceful life,” she told The Tablet on April 21.
Now her workload involves helping people affected by the war, including soldiers.
The front lines, she noted, were only 10 miles to the southeast, which makes it vulnerable to yet another weapon — artillery fire.
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“You have to do something,” she said, “because if you do not, you are going to die of depression. So, you fight, and you do that by doing something good every day.”
Hostilities between Russia and Ukraine began in 2014, but Sister Lucia did not face danger then because the warzone remained in the far-eastern areas of Donetsk and Luhansk.
That changed on Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia launched a major escalation.
“We were in a panic,” Sister Lucia said. “We didn’t know how far the Russians would come. So, the city emptied, absolutely.”
Residents returned later, but Zaporizhzhia’s population has since swelled with war refugees. They stay because they want to be as close as possible to their homes in the Russian-occupied areas.
This growing population is joined by steady streams of soldiers flowing to and from the front lines.
Many stop at the church to receive sacraments. The sisters offer f
ood, launder their uniforms, and help the wounded reach local hospitals.
Sister Lucia described one veteran, a former factory worker, who lost his eyesight in the war. He has no family, but he visits the church, and the sisters take him to coffee.
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Another fighter lost his leg and his brother in the war. The sisters gave him a cell phone, so he called a surviving brother, also a soldier, still at the front.
Sister Lucia said the soldier asked, “Did they find my leg?”
The influx of humanity has boosted the local congregation, while danger persists.
For example, on Dec. 6, 2024, an airstrike hit very close to where Sr. Lucia, other Basilian sisters, and about 80 children were celebrating the feast of St. Nicholas.
The sisters had a brief respite when they visited New York City in March during a fundraising mission. Sister Lucia said donations are the only way her community can afford to offer war-related humanitarian aid.
They were back in Zaporizhzhia by April 12, which was Easter Sunday for the Eastern rite churches. The battling armies agreed to a one-day ceasefire for the holiday.
Sister Lucia said the people joyfully celebrated the resurrection of Jesus with feasting and the traditional blessing of Easter bread and baskets filled with colored eggs.
“The day passed,” she said. “And on Monday morning at 2 o’clock, they attacked Zaporizhzhia again, very hard. Then they attacked again at 5 o’clock — and every night since.”
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Sister Lucia said she is constantly exhausted, but she finds strength in the examples of the people she serves who are even more weary.
“Here, I experience the incredible presence of God,” she said. “It’s complete darkness all around, but you see the light in the hearts of people I would never have met otherwise.
“And I would never have learned to trust God as I do now. Even in such circumstances, you can see how God works, and you can learn how to trust him.”
The Sisters of St. Basil (stbasils.com) have a U.S. province based in Fox Chase Manor, Pennsylvania. The sisters there are assisting with fundraising for their community in Ukraine.
