Address by the Head of the UGCC for the 245th Week of the Full-Scale War, October 25, 2026
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
This Sunday, we mark the 245th week of this devastating, bloody war. Many call it a full-scale invasion, but we, as Christians, call it a sacrilegious war—a tremendous blasphemy and an affront to both God and humanity.
This week, our defenders—young men and women—liberated Ukrainian territory, successfully holding back numerically superior Russian forces. At the same time, the enemy continued its relentless attacks, day and night, on our cities and villages. On October 16 and 19, the enemy mercilessly targeted the infrastructure of our cities and villages, leaving about one million people without electricity.
And on the night of October 22, the enemy launched a massive attack on Kyiv. Twenty-one ballistic missiles. Missiles deliberately aimed at residential neighborhoods.
One of them struck right next to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. This attack took place against the backdrop of yet another round of negotiations on a possible ceasefire—at a time when someone was quick to describe the Russian aggressor as “humane.”
We witnessed an attack that struck at what is most sacred, showing contempt not only for diplomacy but also for human life.
Yet one bright moment occurred this week. When I told our monks, nuns, priests, and faithful about it, one person exclaimed, “Well, maybe now the war will finally end.” That moment was my meeting with His Holiness Pope Leo on Friday.
It was deeply moving that, in the first week after his return from the hospital, the Holy Father wanted to hear a voice from Ukraine. On the one hand, this meeting was a moment of paternal consolation from the Holy Father to the suffering people of Ukraine; on the other, it was a moment of full and visible communion between the Church of Kyiv and the Successor of the Apostle Peter.
I thanked the Holy Father for his unwavering voice in defense of Ukraine and for his humanitarian diplomacy, which has the courage to speak prophetically to the powerful of this world about the necessity of peace—particularly, about the fact that the war in Ukraine has no military solution.
I assured the Holy Father that Ukraine has been praying and continues to pray for his recovery. I told him about the outcomes of our Synod of Bishops, which took place this year in Zarvanytsia. I spoke about the life of our Church both in Ukraine and in the many parts of the world where the Ukrainian diaspora lives.
In particular, I told him how we are preparing for winter and getting ready to endure the cold at a time when Russia seeks to turn winter itself into a weapon of mass destruction. I thanked the Holy Father for the solidarity shown by Catholics around the world toward our Church and our people.
I spoke to him about the heroic service of our priests, monks, and nuns to the faithful of Ukraine, and about our bishops—all those who, in their own ways, strive to live out their Christian faith through acts of mercy and love. At the end of our meeting, the Holy Father thanked me for my witness of faith.
He told me that the Ukrainian Church’s witness of faith is so important both for the Pope himself and for the entire universal Church.
That is why we say once again: Ukraine stands! Ukraine prays! Ukraine fights!
Read also:
His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk Brings ‘Ukraine’s Prayers’ and List of Prisoners to Pope Leo
This Sunday in Rome, a truly unique event is taking place at the Basilica of Saint Sophia. Members of the “Mothers in Prayer” movement have gathered in the Eternal City, coming not only from Italy but also from various parts of the world.
Yesterday, a scholarly conference dedicated to this phenomenon—the movement of mothers united in prayer—was held at the Pontifical Lateran University. Today, we celebrated a unique communal Divine Liturgy at the Basilica of Saint Sophia, a legacy of Patriarch Joseph, our great predecessor.
During my conversation with the Holy Father, I also mentioned this organization, which is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its founding this year. I told him how Ukrainian mothers had been praying for the Pope and for his recovery. The Holy Father truly wished to express his heartfelt gratitude to all those who had prayed for him, especially the mothers who remembered him in their prayers.
Today, we want to thank all the members of this movement and all the mothers who pray. A mother’s prayer is a special source of strength for our Church and our people today. During wartime, a mother is perhaps the one who waits.
She waits for her son or daughter to return from the front lines or from a distant foreign land. She waits for news of her children who are in mortal danger. And a mother who prays transforms the power of waiting into the power of intercession.
When human efforts fail, when prolonged waiting brings a sense of helplessness, prayer ensures that no one falls into despair. On the contrary, when human strength is exhausted, God’s power, which we invoke in prayer, comes to our aid.
I want to thank all the mothers who unite in prayer for their children, for our Church, for our people, and for our homeland.
I want to thank everyone who made the journey from distant lands to the Eternal City to bear witness, before the Pope and the universal Church, to the power of our Church’s faith and prayer.
Today we pray: Lord, bless the mothers of Ukraine. Lord, hear their prayers. Grant their requests. Bring all their children home. Let the mothers of Ukraine never weep again.
God, stop this war. Jesus, bless our long-suffering Ukrainian land with Your just and 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.
