The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations calls on NATO, the UN, the European Union, the OSCE and the Council of Europe to take urgent measures to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine and provide the Ukrainian Armed Forces with modern air defense equipment.
This is declared in the Statement of the Council of Churches on the shelling of civilian objects in Ukraine by Russian invaders.
The document's text was published today, March 8, on the website of the AUCCRO.
We provide the full text of the Statement below:
"Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine's sovereign territory, we have witnessed the Russian invaders resorting to the most cynical and forbidden methods of warfare under international humanitarian law. In fact, Russia is waging war against Ukraine's civilian population. The enemy launches attacks (from the territory of Belarus in particular), hitting residential areas, schools, kindergartens, maternity hospitals, hospitals and critical infrastructure facilities necessary to ensure the lives of civilians with aviation strikes, prohibited cluster and vacuum munitions.
The shelling of humanitarian corridors, evacuation buses and even ambulances are glaring examples of Russian invaders' unjustified cruelty and unbridled aggression. The contemptuous attitude of the Russian leadership towards human life that we observe regarding Russian soldiers thrown into this war of aggression is now manifested in the civilian population of Ukraine. People are forced to flee from Russian missiles and occupiers, migrating to safer regions and neighboring European Union.
Moreover, Russia's military attack on Ukraine is accompanied by shelling and bombing peaceful infrastructure, housing and even churches. For example, in the village of Vyazivka, Zhytomyr Oblast, Russian invaders destroyed the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, which was built in 1862. As a result of Russia's shelling of the center of Kharkiv on March 2, the Holy Dormition Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was damaged. On March 7, Russian shells damaged the New Life Evangelical Church in Izyum, Kharkiv Oblast, and the church building was completely destroyed. After the shelling, an Orthodox church in the village of Zavorychi, Brovary district, Kyiv region, caught fire.
There have been reports from various fronts of the Russian invasion of shelling churches, even those sheltering refugees. Even the largest spiritual shrine, the Cathedral of St. Sophia of Kyiv, was threatened with attack.
With this in mind, the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations reiterates their call on NATO as a security partner of Ukraine, the United Nations, the European Union, the OSCE and the Council of Europe, to take immediate action to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine. It has to be done to protect our greatest asset - human lives - and civilian infrastructure from barbaric shelling and bombing by Russian invaders."