The UOC-MP is ready to conduct a religious procession from the city of Orikhiv, Zaporizhia region, to the Azovstal plant in Mariupol to help remove residents and the wounded from the city.
Primate of the UOC-MP Onufriy said this in his appeal.
"It is with deep sadness that I watch what is happening in the city of Mariupol these days. The feeling of heartfelt grief encourages us to pay attention on the eve of the main Christian holiday — the bright resurrection of Christ — to the need to save those who, having remained in the long-suffering Mariupol, found themselves in the conditions of a humanitarian catastrophe. To this day, numerous civilians remain in the city, including many children and the elderly. Wounded servicemen need urgent medical attention. The bodies of the victims should be handed over to their families for proper burial," the document says.
"In this regard, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is ready to organize a prayer procession through the efforts of the episcopate, clergy, monks and believers from the city of Orikhiv, Zaporizhia region, to the Azovstal plant in Mariupol to provide emergency care and withdraw civilians. The march could also take out wounded soldiers and pick up the bodies of the dead," Metropolitan Onufriy notes.
The Primate of the UOC-MP also asks to ensure a ceasefire in the territory of Mariupol and its environs during the period from Good Friday (April 22) to the bright resurrection of Christ (April 24) and provide a humanitarian corridor for the prayer procession.