Video Message of the Head of the UGCC on the 212th Week of the Full-Scale War, March 8, 2026
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
This Sunday marks the 212th week of the great war. Although, unfortunately, this week is also remembered as the beginning of a major war in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine is of an entirely different nature and, sadly, continues. A war that claims the lives of dozens of civilians every day. It remains the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the end of World War II.
This week, the enemy most heavily attacked southern Ukraine. The fiercest fighting is being waged south of Zaporizhzhia, near the town of Huliaipole. Our troops have fought bravely in repelling Russian attacks, and in other areas of the front, they have even broken through the front lines and liberated territories occupied by Russia.
Every night, we are bombarded by hundreds of Russian drones and missiles. This week, Kryvyi Rih, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Odesa, and our long-suffering city of Zaporizhzhia were the most severely affected.
However, this week also brought a ray of light that filled our hearts with gratitude to God, to people, and with joy. Another exchange of prisoners of war took place. About 500 defenders of Ukraine returned home from Russian torture chambers. Among them were the defenders of Mariupol, the heroes of Azovstal, who had been in captivity for almost four years, but today returned to their families.
We thank the Lord God, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, our volunteers, and all those who defended our lives this week in Ukraine.
And so, on behalf of this heroic and long-suffering Ukrainian people, we declare once again to the whole world: Ukraine stands, Ukraine fights, Ukraine prays!
Yesterday, March 7, in response to the call of the European Bishops’ Conference, Ukraine prayed for peace. We united our prayer with the prayer of the Catholic Church in Europe for peace in Ukraine and throughout the world.
It is evident that Ukrainians know what war is and deeply understand the danger of igniting new wars in other parts of the world. We prayed especially for the Middle East, where war is raging today, particularly in Iran, the Holy Land, Lebanon, and other countries that are being drawn into this cauldron of war.
Prayers for peace—true peace, just peace—were heard in all our churches, cathedrals, parishes, and monasteries.
Today, March 8, our Church commemorates another sorrowful anniversary. Eight decades ago, the so-called Lviv pseudo-council took place, during which Stalin’s repressive apparatus abolished the legal existence of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, our structures, parishes, and monasteries in the Soviet Union. A year earlier, all our bishops had been arrested, and the Lviv pseudo-council became the final destruction of the visible presence of our Church under the totalitarian communist regime.
But the Church, which is a community of believers, cannot be destroyed. This painful anniversary was a tragedy for millions of Ukrainian believers, yet it also showed that the Church cannot be destroyed because it lives in people’s hearts. The Church is a deep relationship between people and God, not even with the state or society, but with the God who is the source of our life and resurrection.
Remembering this tragic anniversary, we want to warn of the danger of new liquidations and destructions that the Russian occupation authorities are carrying out in the territories they have managed to occupy. Wherever Russian occupation takes hold, religious freedom ceases to exist, but the first to be eliminated are the communities, parishes, and structures of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
On this day, we pray for religious freedom for all. We give thanks for the witness of faith shown by our martyrs and confessors. And we ask that the world remember this, and that the world prevent this.
Today, on Sunday evening, we begin the third week of Great Lent in Ukraine, in accordance with the Eastern Paschal cycle. The time of Great Lent is a special moment in the life of every believing Christian. But today, as we enter the third week of this fast, I would like to recall, or rather focus our spiritual attention on the precepts of spiritual struggle, the so-called invisible battle.
Traditionally, during Lent, when we refrain from various foods and entertainment, we are first and foremost called to refrain from sin. St. John Chrysostom famously said, “What good is it that you do not eat meat, but devour one another?” Therefore, the question of spiritual struggle becomes integral and relevant today.
At one time, our Lord Jesus Christ reminded his apostles and disciples that it is not what enters a person that makes them unclean and defiles them, but rather what comes out of a person that defiles them.
Christ says: what comes out of the human heart—evil thoughts, murder, unchastity, theft, perjury—this defiles a person. But it is interesting that in this list of things that defile, Christ mentions evil thoughts first.
In Eastern Christian asceticism, the struggle against evil thoughts is at the heart of Christian practice, the asceticism of Great Lent. Those thoughts are the cause, the seed of all sin. When a person accepts evil thoughts and does not fight them, they begin to fill his mind and will and turn into action, into sinful deeds.
Therefore, today, as we begin the third week of Lent, I want to urge all of you to be especially vigilant about what you allow to enter your thoughts. Fight evil thoughts as temptations from the enemy of the human race. Think about what is good. Think about what can then be transformed into our dreams. Plan good things, and then turn them into good actions. This is the secret to victory in the invisible spiritual battle. Think positively, think about good things, and then triumph with goodness in your daily life.
May God bless all of you and our long-suffering Ukraine with His righteous, 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!
