Photo screen from video
Pope Francis expressed support for Ukraine and assured that he was praying for the seven-year war with Russia to come to an end here. He announced this to the faithful after reciting the Angelus prayer on Sunday, 12 December, in St. Peter’s Square.
«I want to assure you in my prayer – dear Ukraine, all its churches, religious community and the Ukrainian people – that the conflicts in it be resolved through international dialogue, not through weapons. The most painful statistic I read is that there are more weapons in the world this year than last, but that’s not the way to go. May this Christmas bring peace to Ukraine,» – Pope Francis proclaimed.
Earlier, we wrote that Pope Francis intended to visit Ukraine soon.
Read also: Amid Russia Threats, Why Ukraine Matters–And What’s the Real Situation
We will recall that Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Defense Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said in an interview with the Military Times that Russia had concentrated more than 92,000 troops near the border with Ukraine and was preparing for an attack by late January-early February 2022.
Due to the threat of Russian intervention in Ukraine, Lviv wants to create a concept of territorial defense. Deputies of the Lviv City Council propose to prepare for the possible threat of full-scale Russian intervention, which is warned by experts from the United States and Ukrainian intelligence. In particular, the authorities start working with educational institutions, checking the shelters of civil defense, as well as developing the concept of territorial defense of Lviv.
Read also: In case of invasion, Ukrainians prepare: everyone will be taught military affairs in Lviv
Lviv Now interviewed Ostap Kryvdyk, an activist, political scientist, and associate researcher at the Ukrainian Catholic University Analytical Center to find out if Ukraine is ready for potential provocations, and whether the crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border is part of a Russia’s plan to invade Ukraine. You can read the story here.
For reference:
Greek Catholicism, the majority religion of Lviv, Ukraine, is a Christian confession which acknowledges Catholic doctrine and is in communion with the Pope, but maintains Eastern rites and rituals, including married priests. It emerged in 1596, when a part of the Orthodox Church recognised the supremacy of the Pope. Later, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) became mostly localised in the Western Ukraine, becoming one of the markers of the national identity for the region’s population during Austrian, Polish and Soviet rule.
Currently, Kyiv is the center of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, under the jurisdiction of His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, major archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia, and it is present in many regions of the country, though Galicia, where Lviv is, still remains its bulwark. It also has a strong presence among the Ukrainian diaspora, especially in parts of Canada, the United States, and Australia.
Translated by Vitalii Holich
You can read a Ukrainian language version of this story here.
Follow Lviv Now on Facebook and Instagram. To receive our weekly email digest of stories, please follow us on Substack.
Lviv Now is an English-language website for Lviv, Ukraine’s «tech-friendly cultural hub.» It is produced by Tvoe Misto («Your City») media-hub, which also hosts regular problem-solving public forums to benefit the city and its people.
