Address by the Head of the UGCC for the 243rd Week of the Full-Scale War, October 11, 2026
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
This Sunday marks the 243rd week of the full-scale war in Ukraine, although we know that the war has already been raging on our soil for more than 12 years.
This week has been particularly brutal, especially as we watched our peaceful cities and villages burn. Having suffered setbacks on the battlefield, the Russians are terrorizing civilians in our cities and villages day and night.
On the night of October 7, the enemy launched one of the most vicious attacks on Ukraine. In the city of Pryluky alone, more than 10 people were killed. That night, the Russians killed 32 people in Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, and other cities across Ukraine. Hundreds were wounded.
In Pryluky, a five-story building was hit, killing or injuring entire families. And the very next day, October 8, another tragedy struck our heroic city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region.
The Russians targeted public buses in the city center. Thirty-three people were killed on the spot, and about a dozen were wounded, including young children. In the face of this bloodshed, destruction, pain, and tears, we feel especially close to the wounded Ukrainian family today.
This is a family now enduring the pain of loss—a family that is the basic unit of any society. Today, the Ukrainian family needs special care and support.
Today, Ukrainian families mourn those who have been killed and suffer alongside those who have been wounded. This solidarity among Ukrainian families extends across the entire nation. Regardless of where Ukrainians live—in the center, west, north, east, or south of the country—we stand in solidarity with our wounded Ukrainian families.
We know that the family is the first school of love. It is the fundamental unit in which new life is born. The family is the space where we learn to build healthy, fulfilling human relationships.
Husbands and wives, children, older and younger generations—all are part of the family. Without healthy, fulfilling, active, and happy families, there can be no healthy, fulfilling, and happy society. That is why we feel a special duty today to support Ukraine’s wounded families.
In particular, we must support the families of our fallen heroes, the families of prisoners of war and those missing in action, and the families mourning loved ones who have died this week. We believe that the Church, the state, and the entire public must recognize their responsibility toward the Ukrainian family. No other form of human coexistence bears such an important responsibility or plays such a vital role in shaping the future as the Ukrainian family.
Therefore, even today, the wounded Ukrainian family remains a source of hope for Ukrainian society. It is there that the Church proclaims the Gospel of the family. And on behalf of our Ukrainian families, we want to declare once again to the whole world: Ukraine stands! Ukraine fights! Ukraine prays!
These days, a major event for the entire Church is taking place at the heart of the Catholic Church, in the Vatican. His Holiness Pope Leo XIV has invited all the heads of the Eastern Catholic Churches and the presidents of Catholic bishops’ conferences from around the world to a very special meeting. Today, the attention of the entire Church is focused on the pastoral care of the family.
In this way, the Pope wished to recall and celebrate the 10th anniversary of the publication of Pope Francis’s post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia (“The Joy of Love”). How important it is today to hear what family life is like for Catholic Christian families in different countries around the world.
We heard very moving testimonies from couples—from different corners of the world, including Asia, Africa, North and South America, and Europe. But the voice from Ukraine moved everyone in a special way.
We had the opportunity to speak about the tragedy facing Ukrainian families. We spoke about how, among all social institutions today, the family in Ukraine is the most wounded and requires special care, support, healing, and assistance. Such assistance is needed so that even when a family lives in a situation of de facto separation, when a husband and wife cannot build a life together because of the war, they can still build and maintain healthy, fulfilling family relationships and bonds of kinship.
We emphasized the vital role of pro-family movements in our Church, as well as the various communities in which families support one another. The voice of the Ukrainian family—and also the voice of the Ukrainian Church, which today nurtures family values and accompanies Ukrainian families through the horrors of war—has been heard throughout the world. We are grateful to all those who stand in solidarity with us today and who are ready to lend a helping hand in such critical and dangerous circumstances.
We are especially grateful to the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, for his attention to the pastoral care of the family, which, in accordance with our pastoral plan, is one of the priorities of the life and ministry of our Ukrainian Church.
We pray: Lord, bless our family. Lord, bless our young women and men who are not afraid to begin their married life together. Lord, heal the wounds of the Ukrainian family. Wipe away the tears of those who weep. Give strength to all those who are weary.
Lord, help the Ukrainian children who have been abducted by the godless Russian regime to return to their fathers and mothers. Lord, bless Ukrainian families with fruitfulness, so that our spouses may have the courage to bring new life into the world for their people, their Church, and the future of Ukraine.
God, stop the war and bless our 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!
