As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine neared the 500-day mark, OSV News traveled to Kyiv to speak with Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the worldwide Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, about the war and its implications for Ukrainians, the Catholic Church and the global community.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
OSV News: How would you describe the past 500 days of Russia’s full-scale invasion?
Major Archbishop Shevchuk: Each of them have been different. In the beginning, especially (in Kyiv), we faced direct occupation and imminent death. Kyiv was like a trap. ... (Russians) were 20 kilometers (about 13 miles) away. The Dnipro River was blocked and mined; all the bridges were closed.
Well-armed Russian forces were present here even before the invasion. We discovered we had them among our cathedral choir. They (knew) very well where I live, where my window is, where the entrance to our building is. I was on the list to be eliminated. Literally, we were saved by the people of this quarter, who formed a special unit of self-defense. ... We were guarded by those military units until the end of last year.
In my house, we could not have any pictures on the wall, because everything was shaking so hard (from explosions). Pictures and icons would simply fall down.
We learned how to discern the kinds of explosions. If the earth was shaking and then there was an explosion, that was shooting. If there was an explosion with no shaking, maybe air defense was working. So, we are traumatized.
OSV News: During a recent pilgrimage in Ukraine, you accepted handkerchiefs representing the tears of bereaved families. How did you process such pain?
Major Archbishop Shevchuk: What can you say to the mother who lost her son? What kind of consolation can you find for someone whose life is destroyed because of this war?
The response is just to be present, to stand with and maybe to cry with them, to share their pain and sorrow. It is not always possible even to say, “I understand you.” I learned that visiting our soldiers in the hospital. The most difficult phrase to hear for that soldier lying without two legs is for somebody to tell him, “I understand you.”
I would call this a sacrament of presence – when we are present, sharing this sorrow, God himself is present. If you share the sorrow, that pain can diminish. And if you invite these people to help one another, such acts of charity can be therapeutic. There is something amazing about it; you cannot explain it with human reasoning, but that is what is actually happening.
OSV News: You visited the sites of the worst atrocities so far in this war. Can you describe those experiences and how you ministered to victims’ families?
Major Archbishop Shevchuk: I was constantly visiting those places, those people. I remember when I was allowed to visit Bucha, Irpin, Borodyanka. … It was horrible. We saw the bodies lying along the streets. Our Church in Irpin was mined. We approached the Church, and the military started to shout, “Stop!” because it was dangerous. ... Mines were everywhere.
We went to those mass graves. ... I asked if it was possible to approach, to stay and just to pray. I stood at the edge of a grave. In a few moments, I felt as if I wasn’t standing on stable ground; it was moving. I asked (the military), “Is it OK that I’m here?” They replied, “Don’t be afraid, but you are (standing) on the bodies.” You can imagine the feeling – that I was standing on the corpses below me.
And at that moment I just cried out, “God, why? Why is it happening, and why am I alive and they are dead?” Maybe in that moment I started to experience survivor guilt, a psychological phenomenon which very often our soldiers feel, and which raises some painful questions: why is my friend dead, and I’m alive?
So that question of “why” is the existential cry which still moves me to find sense, to awaken the consciousness of many people around the world, to be the voice of those people who are lying in those mass graves.
This year I again visited those places to meet the (bereaved) people. We prayed in one place which had bullet marks where many boys were executed. And after this prayer, we had a chance to stay a few hours and just to talk. I remember one man with profound blue eyes who stayed silent. Finally, I spoke to him, and he shared how he had come there to find the body of his 22-year-old son, whose name was also Sviatoslav. He told me, “I saw my son with gouged-out eyes.”
The people of Bucha told me that (Russian troops) were performing those crimes in preparation for a big ethnic cleansing in Kyiv. If Russia had entered the city, Kyiv would have been flooded with human blood. They were well prepared for such a crime, but in a mysterious way, we are alive. I would consider each day of my life today as a miracle.
OSV News: How can the Catholic Church respond pastorally to the suffering of the Ukrainian people?
Major Archbishop Shevchuk: We Ukrainians do not yet realize how deeply we are wounded. People who went through the torture chambers, our seminarians who went through the filtration camps, our tortured priests in the occupied territories, wounded soldiers – each one has his own war trauma.
We have a special therapeutic group in our parish (the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, located in Kyiv) for women who experienced sexual violence (from Russian troops). That violence was happening in public, just to destroy the dignity of the person. Healing the wounds of wartime sexual violence could be a whole new branch of psychology.
So (healing) the pain of war trauma will be the main pastoral task of the Church for the next 10 years at least. I think that the future of Ukraine will depend on our capability to assist people in this process.
OSV News: Given the Gospel’s call to forgiveness, how would you respond to those who urge Ukraine to seek peace and reconciliation with Russia?
Major Archbishop Shevchuk: Is it possible to be reconciled with someone who has inflicted on us such terrible pain? That will take time. We cannot be forced. It is impossible to impose any kind of false sign of reconciliation.
There are some steps which should be taken. I repeat that constantly to the many, many hierarchs of the Catholic Church around the world, especially in the Vatican, who are so eager to push us toward reconciliation. ... I am always asking, “Please, not now.” Because the war trauma will lead us to reject even the idea of reconciliation as such. We need time.
First, Russians should stop killing us and withdraw from our land. While this war is in this so-called “hot phase,” we have to save human life first, protect those who are most exposed and be the voice of the voiceless. Then we have to deal with our own wounds, and seek justice.
We should not justify the predator. We have to listen to the victim. If we put the two on the same level, we never will reach justice or be able to start any process of reconciliation.
OSV News: Russia’s Orthodox leaders, most prominently Patriarch Kirill, have endorsed and even blessed their nation’s attacks on Ukraine. How would you respond?
Major Archbishop Shevchuk: Just as Islamic State instrumentalizes the religion of Islam, Russian ideology is instrumentalizing Christianity. We have the same development in the military theology of the Russian Orthodox Church, which says, “We are the last authentic Christians; everybody else is in heresy. We are the protectors of authentic, traditional Christian values. The collective West is the embodiment of the Antichrist. They are attacking us. We have to fight the metaphysical war. And what is the reward for Russian soldiers? Forgiveness of all their sins and life everlasting.”
And that insidious doctrine is invading Christianity in U.S. It is not only an issue for Ukraine, and it stands to undermine the credibility of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for future generations.
The children of those who accept such an ideology will one day ask what you were doing when Russian ideology was killing – how you went through this war which happened in Ukraine, but affected the whole world.
