As Ukraine prepares to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion Feb. 24, Church leaders of the war-torn country urged people not to forget the suffering and devastation that continues to take place.

As Ukraine prepares to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion Feb. 24, Church leaders of the war-torn country urged people not to forget the suffering and devastation that continues to take place.
Russian clergy and lay Catholics were “caught by surprise” by the pope’s remarks in a video call Aug. 25 to a youth gathering in St. Petersburg praising the country’s past empire and urging young people to “never give up this heritage.”
The head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church said Ukrainians were shocked when Pope Francis told Russian Catholic youths to be proud of their heritage and cited two historic Russian leaders that, the archbishop said, are “the worst example of imperialism and extreme Russian nationalism.”
A Ukrainian Catholic bishop has urged Russians to learn lessons from the fate of mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, and choose “true democracy” rather than “an unstable dictatorship.”
While a Catholic bishop in Ukraine warned current events presented “both hope and danger” for his own country, leaders of Russia’s Orthodox Church backed President Vladimir Putin’s rule and welcomed the apparent defusing of a military rebellion.
On June 6, damage to the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, located in Ukraine’s Kherson region, released some 18 cubic kilometers of water from the Kakhovka Reservoir, putting 42,000 people at flood risk. At least 29 towns and villages along the Dnipro River have been flooded so far.
Russian forces have reportedly seized a Roman Catholic church in Ukraine, according to published accounts
Videos of dead Ukrainian civilians, many apparently executed by Russian troops, are further evidence that “the struggle of Ukraine is a spiritual struggle against evil, against the devil and his servants,” said Ukrainian Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych.
The attack on and seizure of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant by Russian forces could lead to an ecological disaster 10 times worse than the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, said the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.
The Ukrainian Catholic Archdiocese of Kyiv-Halych and the Ukrainian Embassy to the Holy See said they had received information that Russia planned airstrikes on the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Kyiv.