Ukrainian bishops in the U.S. say Russia’s ‘genocidal intent is manifest’ at 4-year mark

Ukrainian Catholic bishops in the U.S. have issued a scathing letter on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, accusing Moscow of “genocidal intent.” 

“This winter, the harshest in years, has been deliberately exploited to break the spirit of a nation,” the bishops said in a letter shared with EWTN News. “It is a war against the people. The genocidal intent is manifest.”

Ukrainian Church leaders in the U.S. charged Russia with using “Mother Nature as an accomplice in state-sponsored terrorism” and “systematically target[ing] Ukraine’s social and spiritual infrastructure” through various documented attacks on hospitals, schools, and places of worship.

The bishops cited “tens of thousands” of Ukrainian children being abducted and deported to Russia, the torture of civilian prisoners, including clergy, and the damage or destruction of more than 600 churches and places of worship since the start of the war.

“Everywhere Russian occupation has taken hold, the Ukrainian Catholic Church has been banned, and all religious confessions except the Moscow Patriarchate are persecuted,” the bishops said.

The church leaders noted 2,881 documented attacks on Ukraine’s health care system, “affecting medical personnel, hospitals and clinics, ambulances, and medical warehouses across the country.” They also highlighted attacks on educational institutions, which have left 4,048 of them damaged and 408 buildings destroyed.

“In a world that Pope Benedict described as living under the dictatorship of relativism, where seemingly everything is up for sale and relationships or principles are reduced to deals or transactions, Ukrainians assert: This is not the will of God!” the bishops said.

The letter, which thanked Americans and “all who stand in partnership” with the people of Ukraine, is signed by Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Metropolitan of Ukrainian Catholics in the U.S.; Bishop Paul Chomnycky, OSBM, of the Eparchy of Stamford, Connecticut; Bishop Benedict Aleksiychuk of the Eparchy of St. Nicholas in Chicago; and Bishop Bohdan Danylo of the Eparchy of St. Josaphat in Parma, Ohio.

Several Catholic leaders from Ukraine have spoken out about the impact of Russian aggression, particularly throughout the winter, during visits to the U.S. ahead of the war’s four-year anniversary on Feb. 24, including Bishop Vitaliy Kryvytskyi, SDB, of Kyiv–Zhytomyr and Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk of Kharkiv.