A Ukrainian bishop has lamented what he describes as a scarcity of international response to the continued conflict in his country.
It comes as Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet head to head for the primary time in six years to debate Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not going to be on the talks going down in Alaska on Friday.
Bishop Maksym Ryabukha of Donetsk has expressed frustration at the dearth of international outcry over continued Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine, where he said conditions have gotten “increasingly worse”.
Speaking ahead of the crunch meeting, the bishop told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that folks in Ukraine feel “forgotten”.
“What hurts most is seeing that the world stays silent while civilian areas are bombed and individuals are killed,” he said.
“From a practical standpoint, we will’t see a big response from the world.”
He added: “The worst isn’t the bombs, it’s the sensation of being forgotten, feeling alone or of being of no value to anybody.”
Bishop Ryabukha, 45, oversees Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnipro, and Zaporizhzhia but half of his exarchate is under Russian occupation. The cathedral stays closed, and church operations are heavily restricted.
“Before the war we had over 80 parishes, and now we’ve only 37 energetic parishes,” he said.
“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 rather difficult to offer any kind of ministry there.
“My exarchate now not has any priests in these territories, all our churches have been destroyed, or they’re closed and folks aren’t allowed to attend them.”
Life near the frontline is very difficult, with one boy telling him that his entire family narrowly escaped death after they realised a bomb was about to hit their home in the course of the night. In an quick, their home was become a “crater”.
“We feel helpless, since it is as if no person sees what is going on,” said Bishop Ryabukha.
He continued, “The only thing that provides us hope is that God is stronger than the evil we will find on the planet.
“We have a look at each day life from the attitude of heaven, because in the end every little thing will end, and that end is known as paradise.
“The only query is learn how to get there. Every day is a latest opportunity to take steps in that direction, and we do what we will.”
Despite years of war, he celebrates the undeniable fact that his eparchy now has 19 seminarians, a lot of them raised in parish youth groups.
“Both the boys and the women are looking for meaning, they’re brave within the face of life, they usually have grown a lot as human beings,” he said.
“The psychological drama of war causes many children to lose the flexibility to read, write or speak.”
ACN has provided trauma counselling for youngsters and bereaved families, in addition to protected spaces with light and heating during winter power cuts.
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