The Council of the Metropolia, meeting in its annual session on 24-25 February 2022, was profoundly saddened and affected by the unjustifiable and unlawful invasion of our beloved Ukraine – a sovereign and independent nation recognized as such by the entire world – by the armed forces of the Russian Federation at the direction of its President, Vladimir Putin. As justification for his (and his alone) decision to invade Ukraine, Mr. Putin presented a completely false version of history linking Kyivan-Rus (Ukraine) and Rosiya (English – Russia). He further accused the Ukrainian nation of anti-Semitism with plans to develop nuclear weapons, among other falsehoods.
“We condemn Mr. Putin for the complete lack of truth in every part of his justification and for the truth about his invasion – his desire to rebuild his beloved, but thoroughly failed Soviet Union. We condemn the silence of Russian government and spiritual leaders who know this truth but by their silence condemn perhaps thousands or millions of innocent Ukrainian people to death or serious injury. This is nothing new for the governments of the Russian Federation and/or the Soviet Union. The history of Ukraine is replete with genocide and crimes against humanity committed by them against the population of Ukraine,” reads the statement.
“We strongly urge all members of our Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, South America and the Diaspora to speak out boldly in support of the once again suffering Ukrainian nation – her government, armed forces and her people. We urge all freedom loving people to exhibit their support for the people of Ukraine not only in prayers and thoughts, but to take to the streets demanding that their elected government officials seek every possible way of supporting them with whatever they need to survive. We urge all members of our church and beyond to contribute to the fund-raising efforts on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church official website: uocofusa.org and on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA Facebook page. Every penny of donations received through these efforts will go to the aid of wounded armed forces members and their families, to those suffering the consequences of the invasion with destroyed churches, homes and injuries and to those forced to become refugees in neighboring countries. We have the means and methods of providing this aid and we pray that it is plentiful,” the statement says.
“We members of the Council of the Metropolia join citizens of the world in hundreds of cities, towns and villages throughout the world who have already gathered to manifest their prayers and support to the Ukrainian people. May our loving God in the Holy Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – receive our prayerful petitions sending the legions of angels commanded by Archangel Michael, the patron saint of Kyiv, to crush the ambitions of the aggressors,” the Council stated.
