A Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishop has issued a heartfelt plea for the world to break its silence over the suffering of civilians as war rages in eastern Ukraine.
Bishop Maksym Ryabukha, who oversees Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that the situation is becoming “increasingly worse” ahead of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. The talks are due to take place at an Alaskan air base on Friday to address the war in Ukraine, but a Ukrainian representative will not be present.
“What hurts most is seeing that the world remains silent while civilian areas are bombed and people are killed,” the 45-year-old bishop said. “The worst is not the bombs. It is the feeling of being forgotten, feeling alone or of being of no value to anybody.”
Known as a “bishop on wheels” for constantly travelling to visit his people, Bishop Maksym ministers in one of the most vulnerable regions in the world. Half of his exarchate, which is the eastern equivalent of a diocese, is under Russian occupation, where churches have been closed or destroyed and Catholics are forbidden from practising their faith.
“Before the war we had over 80 parishes and now we have only 37 active parishes,” he explained. “My exarchate no longer has any priests in these territories.”
The bishop described how parishioners along the front line live in constant fear. One boy told him how his family narrowly escaped a bomb that struck their home, reducing it to rubble. “We feel helpless because it is as if nobody sees what is happening,” he said.
Despite the hardship, Bishop Ryabukha says hope remains. “The only thing that gives us hope is that God is stronger than the evil we can find in the world. Every day is a new opportunity to take steps towards paradise.”
