CHURCH leaders in Ukraine have voiced concern at moves by the United States to end the war in their country through bilateral talks with Moscow, and have appealed to Western Christians for continued support.
“We believe peace will be restored one day — but a peace based on truth, not on an unconditional surrender to evil and compromise with injustice,” the Apostolic Exarch for Ukrainian Greek Catholics in Germany and Scandinavia, Bishop Bohdan Dzyurakh, said.
“A just peace means a peace based on rights and principles that Europe established after World War Two, which have proved their effectiveness over decades — not one that respects the neo-imperialist, colonial desires of a tyrant who incited the mass destruction of innocent people.”
The Bishop spoke as European heads of government assembled in Paris to plan a common strategy, a day before Tuesday’s meeting between the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and a top-level Russia delegation in Saudi Arabia.
A prominent Ukrainian Evangelical warned that a peace deal that ceded territory to Moscow would mean “continued persecution for years” for Christian minorities.
“For Evangelicals in Ukraine, it isn’t important to achieve peace for themselves only: they also want peace and freedom for brothers and sisters in regions under Russian control,” the director of Kyiv’s Institute for Religious Freedom, Dr Maksym Vasin, told the news website Christian Daily International.
“If Russia maintains control over parts of Ukrainian territory, there will be many atrocities and acts of persecution, primarily against Evangelical believers — and it will be worse each year.”
A follow-up meeting of European leaders was expected in Paris on Wednesday, amid fresh Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities. President Zelensky warned that Ukraine would not accept a settlement negotiated behind its back.
Speaking last weekend in Philadelphia, the Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, told American Christians that his country had survived thanks to prayers and support from “millions of people worldwide”, and said that “a ceasefire which leaves people suffering under occupation” would be a “cruel mockery”.
Bishop Dzyurach urged European governments to avoid the mistakes of past appeasement, and seek “a peace based on principles of international law and human rights” which upheld “God-given independence and freedom”.
“European leaders must take responsibility before God and not think about pleasing the aggressor,” the Bishop told Christian Daily International.
“Do not despise the innocent victims of this war and betray the heroism of the Ukrainian people — nor the expectations of Europeans who’ve demonstrated unprecedented solidarity with Ukrainians for years.”
Monday’s third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale attack is to be marked across Ukraine by a National Day of Prayer, established by the country’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, with backing from all Churches.
