The Head of the UGCC: Massacre in Bucha was planned as a prelude to the great massacre in Kyiv

This was said by the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Sviatoslav, on the first anniversary of the liberation of Kyiv Oblast, reports the Information Department of the UGCC.

"We remember the sad events. I remember how a year ago I arrived, as soon as such an opportunity appeared, to Bucha. Over time, this name became known all over the world. You could also see dead bodies on the streets, burnt-out tanks and Russian equipment. But the most difficult thing was to look at the mass graves of innocently murdered young people — women, and men. In those moments, it was really difficult to say even a word. Those pictures were shocking. The locals didn't talk much because they were still full of pain. The whole world seems to have paid attention to this recently occupied and liberated territory," the first hierarch said.

According to him, it is very important to communicate with people who survived the occupation. A year after these terrible events, they need to be heard.

"During my recent visit to these territories, my main goal was not just to see the places, but to meet the people - the relatives and friends of the victims. One father told me how last year, in early April, he had to identify the dead body of his son with his eyes gouged out. I will always remember the look on that father's face," said the head of the UGCC with sadness.

As the church community visited these liberated territories, they carried with them the hope that life was returning, that it was stronger than death. According to His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Primate, they are still striving to reach out to those who suffer the most so that they can be close to them.

He also recalled how at the beginning of the war, Kyiv became the spiritual capital of the world because everyone was on the verge of life and death. Many heads of international delegations who visited Ukraine at that time said that if someone was not in Kyiv, they were an outsider to world diplomacy.

His Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasized that only by visiting these places of crimes committed by the Russian Army, looking into the eyes of the people, contemplating the destroyed houses and mass graves, can one see that the world they knew before, that is, former Russia, Ukraine, Europe, no longer exists.