Video Message of the Head of the UGCC on the 195th Week of the Full-Scale War, November 9, 2025
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
This Sunday marks the 195th week since the start of the full-scale invasion of Russian troops into our homeland. Although we remember and know that the war has been raging for almost eleven years now.
This week will again be inscribed in the history of Ukraine, Europe, and the world as a week of heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people to the Russian occupiers. Our prayers were dedicated to two cities with very meaningful names — Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad. It is there that the Russians have amassed 170,000 of their troops. Almost the same number invaded Ukraine at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. And now they are all concentrated in the heart of the Ukrainian Donbas.
We thank our heroic defenders for deterring the enemy, who outnumbers us in numbers, cruelty, and brutality towards their own soldiers—everything that we know and define today as “war” and “military confrontation.”
Today, as we conclude this heroic week, we once again express our gratitude to God and the Armed Forces of Ukraine for keeping us alive, for Ukraine’s resilience in this unequal struggle this week, and for demonstrating to the entire world the wonders of resilience and the magnificence of the Ukrainian spirit.
This week was again a week of nightly air strikes on our peaceful cities and villages. The energy infrastructure continues to be systematically destroyed. Most of our regions are subject to power outages, either planned or urgent. The city of Kyiv, the capital of our homeland, is facing situations in mid-November where high-rise buildings have neither heat nor light. This means that these buildings become cold traps for their residents.
We are doing everything to deploy humanitarian aid — we are restoring centers of resilience and invincibility in order to warm and enlighten those who need help during this cold season.
And today we once again express our hope and faith in God. Ukraine stands, Ukraine fights, Ukraine prays!
Yesterday, all Christians in Ukraine, including our Church, celebrated a special holiday—the Synaxis of the Archangel Michael and the Other Bodiless Powers of Heaven. On this day, in accordance with ancient tradition, our Church focuses the attention of our church community on the invisible heavenly presence around us.
We once again discover the presence of countless incorporeal heavenly powers, called angels, around us. The city of Kyiv is particularly reverent of this holiday because it is dedicated to Archangel Michael, who has been the patron and protector of our capital since the days of the princes.
However, on this day, we must also rediscover the spiritual reality that lies in the very special mission of these ministering spirits. According to the experience of God’s people in the Old Testament, which we discover in the Holy Scriptures, along with the contemporary experience of Christ’s Church, angels are bearers of God’s power and grace, which saves people, especially in the most extreme and distressing circumstances.
Today, we are especially grateful to Archangel Michael for his protection over our capital and the Ukrainian army. It is no coincidence that we associate a series of revolutionary events in the history of modern Ukraine with Archangel Michael, who reminds us that evil has already been defeated. On the Day of Archangel Michael and the Synaxis of the Heavenly Powers, two revolutions began in Ukraine — the so-called Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity.
Archangel Michael is the patron saint of the Ukrainian army. In particular, yesterday we celebrated the Day of the Airborne Assault Forces, the most combat-ready unit of the Ukrainian army.
Archangel Michael is the one who says to all of us today that evil has already been defeated, but it refuses to admit it. And all of us who are fighting evil, each on our own front, each in our own life choices or on our own life path, are only revealing this victory of good over evil, which has already occurred. And Archangel Michael is with us.
Perhaps we remember how, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the residents of Kyiv spontaneously sensed the presence of the archangel among us. And we experienced his protective power firsthand, just as Jesus once saw the archangel Michael near the walls of Jericho. And then, by the power of God, the enemy army collapsed.
Today, we also honor the Archangel Gabriel, who is the bearer of God’s Word. We remember the glorious vision of the prophet Daniel, in which the archangel Gabriel brought the Word of God about salvation and mercy, that came from God’s mouth to God’s people, who were enslaved and tormented in Babylonian captivity. This same archangel Gabriel brought the Good News, the Gospel, about the Incarnation of God’s Word to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today we ask that this same archangel bring this Word of God, coming from God’s mouth, about the salvation of Ukraine.
We venerate other angels, archangels, and heavenly hosts who are with us today in various ways. But today we especially call upon the angel of Ukraine to help our people, because we know that not only every person or every city, but every nation, every country has an angel appointed by God who watches over this people and is the bearer of God’s saving action.
Therefore, we call upon all the incorporeal heavenly powers, gathered in their Synaxis under the guidance of Archangel Michael, to come to Ukraine’s aid today. And we implore: God, through Your ministering spirits, send Your saving, liberating, and redeeming power to Your people and bless our long-suffering land with Your righteous, heavenly peace. May Your word of ending the war come to our sorrowful people through Your angels.
God, bless Ukraine! God, bless the Ukrainian army! God, bless the suffering children of Ukraine with Your heavenly power, protection, and help!
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.
