Video-message of the Head of the UGCC on the 164th Week of Full-Scale War, April 6, 2025
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! The 164th week of this horrendous war is passing. This week, our cities and villages were ablaze again. Time and again, Russia is adopting a new tactic of night strikes, particularly against civilians in Ukraine.
For more than six months now, the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region has been the epicenter of hostilities between a large number of Russian troops and our defenders. Our defenders, men and women, are courageously steadfast in their defense. This week, our cities of Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhzhia, and Sumy were also heavily shelled and subjected to nighttime air strikes. Again, there are dozens of dead and hundreds of wounded.
Interestingly, on the night of April 1 st, for the first time this year, Russia neither deployed its drones nor attacked our cities and villages at night. But the next day, it started all over again. It seems like it was an April joke. At a time when the entire international community is arguing for a truce in Ukraine, for a ceasefire, the aggressor is scoffing at these efforts and continues to kill innocents.
It seems that it is our military personnel—our men and women—who are stopping the aggressor with their chests, at the highest price of their blood, and who are the true defenders of peace in Ukraine, its real builders. We owe it to them that we are alive. We thank the Lord God and the Armed Forces of Ukraine for keeping Ukraine standing, fighting, and praying.
This week, in particular, we in the Kyiv region marked the third anniversary of the liberation of our neighboring towns—Irpin, Bucha, and Borodyanka—the third anniversary of the expulsion of the occupying forces from Ukrainian territory.
The Lord God performed a unique miracle in our cities and villages, which will probably go down in history as the miracle over the Dnipro River. After the consecration of Ukraine and Russia to the immaculate heart of Mary, pursuant to the Fatima revelations made by Pope Francis, the liberation and expulsion of the Russian aggressor from Ukraine commenced.
These days, we have been commemorating the victims of this aggression, but we have also been rediscovering the forces that three years ago gave us the opportunity to stand up, not to falter, and to begin liberating our land from the occupiers. We feel that what made it possible to resist three years ago, the miraculous power of God, continues to work in us, among us, and that power is indeed the power of God, which leads to true peace.
This week, in accordance with the spiritual rhythm of Lent, we prayed the great canon of St. Andrew of Crete. It was a grand nationwide moment of repentance. We understand that peace comes from reconciliation, in particular, between man and God.
And on this Sunday, the fifth Sunday of Lent, we already see Jesus Christ announcing to his disciples that he is going to Jerusalem, going up to Jerusalem not to be served by anyone, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. He calls us all not to seek dominance in that world, but to serve one another. And we, Christians, follow our Savior on this paschal road to the Resurrection.
We ask you, Lord, to bless our homeland. O Lord, wipe away the tears of our women, children and the elderly. Lord, we know that you are with us, that you are among us and within us. Guide us on the road to your Resurrection. Bless our long-suffering Ukrainian land with your just heavenly peace.
The blessing of the Lord be upon you, through His grace and love for mankind, always, now and forever, and for the ages of ages. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
