WCC ACTING GENERAL SECRETARY RESPONDS TO FIRST LADY OF UKRAINE: “I PRAY THAT PEACE MAY PREVAIL AND THE WAR WILL STOP”

 

World Council of Churches

Photo:

Albin Hillert/WCC

In a response to a letter from First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca expressed both his appreciation for her candid reflections as well as his own pain at the ongoing and increasingly grave humanitarian consequences of the conflict. 

“Reading your letter, I heard the cries and the weeping of the Ukrainian mothers who lost their children, of the families who lost their dear ones, the despair of those under the ruins of bombed houses, of those dehydrated and starving without hope of escape since the ravages of war do not allow for secure humanitarian corridors,” wrote Sauca. “But I also hear the pain and suffering of Russian mothers, wives, children and parents who receive their dear ones in a coffin, from this illogical fratricide war.”

Sauca noted that, on both sides, there is suffering and despair.

“During the period of mounting tensions over Ukraine and following the outbreak of conflict on 24 February, I and WCC leadership have been intensively engaged in seeking ways to address the situation,” he wrote. “Most of those efforts have not been possible to share in any public or semi-public domain in real-time.”

Sauca then shared an update on the initiatives of WCC and its partners. “WCC is in close contact with ACT Alliance regarding church-based humanitarian responses to the situation in Ukraine and in neighbouring countries due to the conflict,” he wrote. “Having seen the impact of the conflict in the faces of refugees arriving in these neighbouring countries, and being aware of the plight and peril of all those civilians still trapped and unable to flee, we strongly underscore the urgent necessity of effective and secure humanitarian corridors to enable civilians to escape the fighting.”

Sauca urged Russian and Ukrainian forces, and the political leadership of both countries, to coordinate to ensure that such corridors are established and maintained until all those that wish to leave have done so.

“Moreover, I appeal to all those mounting the attacks that threaten civilians to remember their moral and legal responsibility to protect civilians, and their accountability before God for all innocent lives lost,” wrote Sauca. “We could make yet another statement, but I did not feel that it could really help.”

Sauca decided, after reading First Lady Zelenska’s letter, to contact the presidents of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, asking them to make an effort to come to the table of dialogue and to stop the bloodshed and destruction of Ukraine.

He also accepted her invitation to come to Kyiv, together with other religious leaders.

“I pray God that before the great feast of Easter peace may prevail and the war will stop and I will be able to come to Kyiv and celebrate together the joyful feast of Easter and proclaim together with Christ’s Resurrection a free, renewed and resurrected Ukraine,” he concluded.

Read the full letter of the WCC acting general secretary to Mme Olena Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine