The leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church called to pray for the enemies on Tuesday. The deaths of women and children amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine give the picture of innocent victims.
In a video message recorded in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on March 1, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said that as the sun rose on the sixth day of the conflict, the scale of the devastation was apparent.
“We saw destroyed schools, kindergartens, cinemas, museums, and at sunrise near Kyiv, a rocket struck the maternity ward of a hospital,” he said.
“We ask ourselves ‘why?’ Women and unborn children. Why are they the innocent victims of this war?”
The major archbishop released a video on Tuesday, purporting to show the suffering of children amid heavy fighting. The two-minute video showed a mother weeping as medics unsuccessfully attempted to resuscitate her daughter, doctors seeking to revive another lifeless child with a defibrillator, and a youngster lying dead on a floor covered temporarily by a sheet of cardboard.
The video also included images of weeping children taking refuge in underground shelters, as well as women giving birth in temporary accommodation.
The Secretariat of the Major Archbishop in Rome, which distributed the video, said: “The sad toll is getting worse every day: so far 16 children have been killed and 45 injured; thousands are forced to flee their homes, sleep in subways and underground shelters.”
The International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands, said on Feb. 28 that it would open an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine.