'The world doesn't care' says Ukrainian bishop ahead of presidents' meeting in Alaska

Bishop Maksym Ryabukha. Image: ACN

Source: Aid to the Church in Need

Ahead of a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, a Ukrainian bishop has said that the international community has been silent as the assault on civilians has been ramped up.

Bishop Maksym Ryabukha of Donetsk told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that the situation in the war-torn country is becoming "increasingly worse".

He said: "What hurts most is seeing that the world remains silent while civilian areas are bombed and people are killed. From a practical standpoint, we can't see a significant response from the world."

He added: "The worst isn't the bombs, it's the feeling of being forgotten, feeling alone or of being of no value to anybody."

The American and Russian presidents are due to sit down at an Alaskan air base on Friday (15 August) for talks on ending the war in Ukraine, but no representatives from Ukraine will be present.

The 45-year-old Ukrainian Greek-Catholic bishop oversees Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, one of the most vulnerable territories in the world, in the east of the country.

He calls himself a "bishop on wheels" as he always visits parishioners which gives him a window into the "the depths of human life".

Half of his exarchate - the eastern equivalent of a diocese - is off-limits, occupied by Russian forces, and the cathedral is closed.

He said: "Before the war we had over 80 parishes, and now we have only 37 active parishes. The rest were closed, occupied or destroyed. The laws of the occupation force forbid any affiliation with the Catholic Church, either Greek-Catholic or Latin rite, and it is very difficult to provide any sort of ministry there.

"My exarchate no longer has any priests in these territories, all our churches have been destroyed, or they are closed and people are not allowed to attend them."

He said along the front line, some 19 miles (30km) from his exarchate, people leave their homes at night in fear of being crushed to death by bombs or falling walls.

"One boy told me that he was sleeping with his entire family when they heard a bomb drawing closer and realised that it could land right on their house. In just a few seconds they leapt out of bed and left the house, and soon the whole building was turned into a crater.

"We feel helpless, because it is as if nobody sees what is happening."

In April 2014, Russian-backed militants seized towns and cities in the Donbas region and proclaimed the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic as independent states.

In February 2022 Russian troops entered Ukraine leading to ongoing conflict.

Bishop Ryabukha said: "The only thing that gives us hope is that God is stronger than the evil we can find in the world. We look at daily life from the perspective of heaven, because sooner or later everything will end, and that end is called paradise.

"The only question is how to get there. Every day is a new opportunity to take steps in that direction, and we do what we can."

He said his eparchy now has 19 seminarians, boys nurtured in parish youth groups, which he said was "remarkable".

He said: "Both the boys and the girls are searching for meaning, they are brave in the face of life, and they have grown so much as human beings. The psychological drama of war causes many children to lose the ability to read, write or speak."

Help from ACN has come in the form of trauma counselling for children and mothers and wives who have lost husbands in the war.

In the winter electricity cuts take away light and heating in people's homes, so the parishes offer safe spaces where people can receive respite.

The bishop thanked ACN benefactors. He said: "I would like people who do good to know that even when we don't know where it goes and what effect it will have, it is certain that God, through our hands, manages to touch and embrace those people who suffer and bring them a smile, a little joy, a little inner serenity."

Original interview by Xavier Burgos

LINK

Aid to the Church in Need: https://acnuk.org