Video Message of the Head of the UGCC on the 221st Week of the Full-Scale War, May 10, 2026
Christ is risen!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
This marks the 221st week of the great war—the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Although there was once again much talk this week about a ceasefire and a temporary truce in connection with various events in Moscow, it became one of the deadliest weeks yet. Russia is fulfilling none of its promises of peace: it continues to bomb Ukrainian cities and villages day and night.
We are grateful to God and to the Armed Forces of Ukraine for helping us survive yet another week. We feel that every day we remain alive is time and space reclaimed from death, where life has triumphed. This week, we mourned yet more victims of Russian bombings and missile strikes in cities and villages across Ukraine.
But with each passing day, the Russians are becoming increasingly cynical, bombing our cities and villages not only at night, but also in broad daylight.
This week, the daytime attacks on Zaporizhzhia and Kramatorsk were particularly brutal, claiming many lives and leaving dozens wounded. In Sumy, the Russians deliberately targeted a kindergarten.
Indeed, this week was a week of battling death.
As this week drew to a close, Europe and the world commemorated another anniversary of the end of World War II. On May 8, Ukraine joined the rest of the world in remembering all those who gave their lives to defeat Nazism and fascism—the most heinous forms of anti-human ideology.
Against the backdrop of these commemorations, at a time when the entire world seeks not only to win wars but to defeat war itself—to achieve victory over war—the voice of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, speaking before the Greek Parliament, sounded particularly prophetic. In his address, he said that peace is never a certainty, but rather an attainment of humanity. Even today, we must do everything possible to ensure that this attainment, which brought an end to World War II, is not stolen from humanity.
Contemporary ideologies—one of which, as an evolution of the “red dragon” of the communist hydra, continues to kill in Ukraine—still threaten the world today. We ask the Lord God to help modern humanity, having learned the lessons of World War II, stop today’s instigators of war, heed the voice of Pope Leo XIV, and in particular, stop the Russian aggressor.
Therefore, today, as we once again pray for peace and strive daily in Ukraine to comprehend and preserve this gift of God, we want our voice to continue to be heard: Ukraine stands. Ukraine fights. Ukraine prays!
This Sunday, in keeping with a cherished tradition of our people, both in Ukraine and throughout the diaspora, we celebrate Mother’s Day. On this special day, when we do more than simply remember our mothers—those who are still with us and those who have passed into eternity—we wish to thank the Lord God for the gift of motherhood.
Today we pray for our mothers, for those who gave us life and brought us into this world, and above all for those who, for each of their children, became the first relationship through which personal loneliness was overcome. A mother calls her child beyond the boundaries of self and into a joyful communion of love.
Today we also thank all the women of Ukraine who, even amid war, do not reject the gift of motherhood, but overcome death by giving birth to new life. We give thanks for those mothers who courageously defend the lives of their children. Today we honor those women who, together with their mother’s milk, pass on to their children faith in God and teach them to pray. They are the first teachers of authentic Christian human relationships.
It is interesting that, during our Easter journey toward Pentecost, on the very day we honor our mothers, we hear the Holy Gospel account of the Samaritan woman. She came to the well to draw water, but there she encountered Christ Himself—the wellspring of living water, the grace of the Holy Spirit. She came carrying a water jar, yet she herself became a vessel bearing living water to those who thirst, leading them to an encounter with Christ.
This Sunday, we wish to thank all our mothers who, even amid war, possess the strength and grace of the Holy Spirit to quench the thirst of all who long for the living water of that Spirit: for goodness and justice, mercy and love, and above all, for God’s peace.
Therefore, today, through the voices of those women—our mothers—our Church, as the ever-virgin Bride of Christ, cries out to her Bridegroom: Come! Come, Jesus. Come, Lord, and grant our people and our land 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.
Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen!
