Address by the Head of the UGCC for the 234th Week of the Full-Scale War, August 9, 2026
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
This Sunday marks the 234th week of the horrific, sacrilegious war in which—as Patriarch Josyf Slipyj, a confessor of the faith, once said—every day and every night, rivers of blood flow and a sea of tears is shed in Ukraine, and mountains of corpses tower over the land. Unfortunately, this picture not only becomes part of our daily prayer to the Lord for help and intercession, but also urges us to pray and work from the depths of our hearts to bring this war to an end.
This has once again been an extremelly bloody week in Ukraine. On the night of August 5, the Russians launched a massive strike on the capital, as well as on the Kyiv region. This strike was particularly cynical and vicious. It seems that ordinary civilians were the intended targets of this attack: cars were burning, private homes were destroyed, and warehouses were razed. Many civilians were killed—people who were waiting for a train at the railway station. All of this increasingly leads us to believe that the Russian aggressor is truly attempting to wear Ukraine down. But it cannot wear us down physically. It cannot break through the front lines. It cannot deplete the resources we need to sustain our struggle and our daily lives. The enemy is attempting to wear us down morally and spiritually.
In addition to this horrific ballistic missile strike on Kyiv and the Kyiv region—which claimed the lives of 17 people, one in the capital and 17 in various parts of the Kyiv region—we can see that the main goal is indeed to strike us a moral and spiritual blow. And that is why this blow is being launched against the backdrop of a massive information and psychological attack on Ukraine. They want to convince Ukrainians that Ukraine is inevitably headed—especially this winter—toward economic collapse, an energy crisis, and all kinds of other apocalyptic scenarios that have no basis in reality whatsoever.
Once again, we must find the strength within ourselves to resist not only these military attacks on Ukraine, but also the information attacks aimed at our hearts and souls. We must once again feel that we are capable of winning, capable of standing firm. With God’s help, we are capable of overcoming all the difficulties we face today.
Today, we are especially grateful to all those who demonstrate Ukraine’s unbreakable will to persevere and fight against evil. We thank our military—the young men and women on the front lines—and our rescue workers. For Russian strikes—which are sometimes twice as powerful—are directed not only against specific infrastructure but also against rescue workers and medical professionals who rush to the scene to pull people still alive from under the rubble and save human lives. We want to thank all those who are supporting Ukraine today, praying, and standing with us.
This week, we commemorated the centennial of the birth of a very special figure in the history of our Church, who can serve as an example of resilience and inspire us with hope for victory. Yesterday in Kolomyia, we celebrated the centennial of the birth of Bishop Pavlo Vasylyk, a bishop of the Catacomb Church and a confessor of the faith.
He embodies the indomitable spirit of the Ukrainian people, even during the darkest days of communist persecution. His Eminence served two prison terms, and there were two attempts on his life, but to his persecutors he said: “You will take away my priestly vestments, but others will sew new ones for me. You will seize our churches, but we will acquire hundreds of churches, because every believing family will turn their home into a house of God.”
He was the one who, as early as 1987, together with other activists of the underground Church, announced our Church’s emergence from the underground. He was the star that heralded the rise of the “sun of freedom” and the liberation of our Church from communist bondage, as well as the collapse of the Soviet Union as a prison of nations.
Inspired by the example of Bishop Pavlo Vasylyk and strengthened by the power of the Christian faith, even in today’s difficult circumstances, Ukraine speaks with one voice to the whole world: Ukraine stands, Ukraine fights, Ukraine prays!
This week we celebrated one of the greatest Christian feasts of the year—the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. This feast is experienced in a special way within our Church at a unique place of pilgrimage—our spiritual Starunya. There, in the only underground basilica in Ukraine, the Lord has established a special space for healing the wounds of war.
We reflected spiritually on the first year since the consecration of this spiritual pilgrimage center. Looking back, we could see how, over the course of this year, hundreds of thousands of wounded Ukrainians who came here received the gift of spiritual healing.
Many miracles have taken place here. Before the icon of the Savior of Bakhmut, mothers prayed for the safe return of their children who had been reported missing in action. Countless prayers of gratitude were offered for our soldiers who were rescued from Russian captivity.
Indeed, this is a time of healing and transformation for Ukraine, even in the midst of this brutal war.
According to the liturgical cycle of our Byzantine tradition, every major feast of the Lord is followed by a week of post-feast days. This is the week during which we continue to reflect spiritually on the experience we had during the Feast of the Transfiguration.
Thus, we pray today: Lord, on Mount Tabor, Peter addressed You, saying, “It is good for us to be here.” The Father’s voice spoke to the disciples—and indeed to all Christians—pointing to Jesus: “Behold, this is my beloved Son; hear Him.”
Jesus, we long to hear You, even when someone is waging information and psychological attacks against us. We do not want to hear the voice of the evil spirit, who whispers temptations to give in and resign ourselves to evil, to agree to certain deals at any cost. We do not want to do so, for the price of our salvation, our redemption, is Your holy blood, which You shed on the cross.
Jesus, You who were transfigured on Mount Tabor, transform us—our hearts, our thoughts—and strengthen our will in all that is good and serves to protect and preserve life.
Jesus, bless our long-suffering Ukraine with Your righteous, heavenly peace.
