Sister Ligy Payyappalli is an Indian nun who serves in Ukraine for last many years. Now she and her nun community help the people in Ukraine who are torn by the cruelties of war. She writes her experiences and witnessed the realities of the suffering of the Ukrainian people. Catholic news shares the article written by Sister Ligy Payyappalli from Mukachevo, Ukraine.
From Mukachevo, Sister Ligy Payyappilly writes: in Ukraine, there are “many mothers who mourn their children just as Mary suffered before the Cross for her beloved Son.” For her, “the more this war goes on, the more innocent people will die”.
I am going to share with you the shocking information that proves that the Russian military invasion in Ukraine is not only a war of military combat with weapons but also its is all about the massacres and repression and brutal sexual assault on innocent women and children. Is it what we call war, shooting innocent men point-blank, Raping young women and mothers in front of their children, brutally injuring the pregnant women? How can these people become so cruel? Seeing these I can only weep before the tabernacle in the chapel. I can only ask God to have mercy on the people who are suffering. As a woman, I can do understand the pain they have to undergo that much.
Here women and girls have recounted the abuse and they are suffering at the hands of Russian Soldiers. Women are grappling with the threat of rape as a weapon of war. Russian army physically tortures and kills a mother in front of a six-year-old son. The cruelty and vicious persecution of the soldiers against the mother after being raped brutally and the woman died of physical and mental anguish in front of her son. The six bodies of women were being found under tires in Kargiv. The Russian army has carried out mass killings and dead bodies can be seen on the roadsides without having arms and legs. I do not know how many days it will take to bury them. Here we can see women and children being parked on the roads and the Russian tanks are being driven over them. This is butchering of the innocents. No civilized society can approve of it. The soldiers tortured a 28 – year – old daughter in front of her handicapped mother. The daughter was the only one to take care of a bedridden mother and the girl abandoned her after being brutally sexually and her mother was killed.
The massacre in Bucha turned into a mass grave with about 410 civilians bodies recovered. People of God fighting each other, Brothers Separated in peace, now fighting to conquer the other, It is heartbreaking, Let God open the heart of the perpetrators that he may stop this aggression. Let us pray for peace in Ukraine.
In their family Man, a Woman, and three daughters, 5,8,17 years old have settled in their home. The man was shot immediately on the same day. Raped the mother in front of her daughters and they raped her daughter’s children in front of her sight. Daughters 5 and 8 years old died from rape and injuries. The mother and 17 years old daughter survived, but their health was in serious condition. How do they live on? Another Family mother and her 16- year old Son. Son has been shot and the woman was raped repeatedly for several days. Later with lots of injuries in the body she died. In this way, the Family finished.
In another house husband, wife an 11-year-old daughter and a dog. Man shot, the dog cut into four pieces in front of daughter and mother. And mother was raped in front of her daughter over a week. The girl was not touched. How is the girl to live on? In another village, only the husband and wife were found dead. The sexual organs of both are cut into pieces. Raping and killing women, grandmothers and children seem to be fun and enjoyable. They get to enjoy doing these cruel things. They did these grandmothers and small children and they are continuing the same now. The nation from child to adult is rotten. In human forms…devils. A feeding woman with a child was found dead on the roadside by cutting the breast of a woman and beside a two-month-old baby. And this is such a small part of the troubles that our women and children are going through. It is a tragedy for the soul, unbearable pain to the body and mind. Our body shrinks from looking at the images but we have the right to be silent about it.
What does it mean to live on Good Friday in war-torn Ukraine? Sister Ligy Payyappilly, a nun from Kerala member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Saint Mark, is living through it and her mission in Mukachevo, shares her experience alongside the victims of the conflict. “This war has become our Good Friday,” she writes. “But we know that Easter comes after” at the “dawn of the Resurrection”.
For us, this is the time of the Way of the Cross. It all started eight years ago and now, since 24 February, this war has become our Good Friday. We know that when Jesus went up from Pilate to Golgotha, his face and clothes were covered in blood. The same is happening today in Ukraine; the blood of the innocent is everywhere. Truly here we can meet many mothers who mourn their children just as Mary suffered before the Cross for her beloved Son. I am sure that Our Lady is interceding for Ukrainian mothers. She can understand the pain of these mothers. For Ukraine, the more this war goes on, the more innocent people will die, especially women and children. Here we can see so much cruelty – 9-, 10-, 11-year-old girls were raped by Russian soldiers and killed. Today Golgotha is really in Ukraine.
But we know that Easter comes after Good Friday. We believe and know that God is with us. Easter will come for us too; our sufferings will end. Let us pray that the dawn of the Resurrection may come for us too. Jesus died for us. He knows our sufferings and can understand us. We are waiting for our Easter, especially for Ukraine, an Easter of hope and peace.
Thank you for giving me a platform to express my feelings for the people of Ukraine; please continue to pray that this war may end and the whole world may enjoy the peace and joy of Risen Christ.
Sr. Ligy Payyappalli