PHILADELPHIA — A U.S. Ukrainian Catholic archbishop is speaking out after Russian forces struck a kindergarten in Ukraine’s second largest city, while killing two children — including an infant — near that nation’s capital.
“The moral clarity and the difference between the aggressor and the victim cannot be more clear,” said Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia in a statement to OSV News.
At least one person was killed and six wounded when Russian drones targeted a private kindergarten in Kharkiv, with children present in the building.
Amid the strike, which took place Oct. 22 at approximately 9 a.m., teachers successfully led all 48 children within the school to bomb shelters, according to Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that many children were “experiencing acute stress reactions” following the strike.
“There is no justification for a drone strike on a kindergarten, nor can there ever be,” said Zelenskyy, who called the strikes “Russia’s slap in the face to everyone who insists on a peaceful solution.”
Archbishop Gudziak described the attack as “yet another sign of the relentless barbarity of the Russian invaders.”
Editors: Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MUST NOT OBSCURE LOGO.
The Kharkiv kindergarten attack followed an intense overnight bombardment by Russia designed to cripple Ukraine’s energy grid as winter approaches.
Two people were killed and 29 injured in Kyiv, with four more — including a 6-month-old baby and a 12-year-old child — slain in the capital’s surrounding region.
“It should become clear to all that Putin does not want peace. In their quest for conquest the invaders stop at nothing,” said Archbishop Gudziak.
He also called on the Russian Christians throughout the world to denounce Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, which were initiated in 2014 before the full scale invasion in 2022, and which have been described as a genocide in two joint reports from the New Lines Institute and The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
“I ask all Russian Orthodox in the United States and globally to finally speak out unequivocally against this invasion,” said Archbishop Gudziak.
The Vatican has also underscored the urgency of the world uniting for peace in Ukraine, citing the dangers of atomic radiation posed by “the ongoing hostilities around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,” which Russian forces have occupied since March 2022.
The condition of the plant, the largest in Europe, has deteriorated under Russian occupation.
Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly Oct. 22, Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, the Holy See’s permanent observer at the U.N., pointed to “the grave dangers that arise when civilian nuclear infrastructure becomes entangled in war.
“The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned of the catastrophic consequences of a radiation leak from this facility, which would affect not only the Ukrainian population, but also neighboring countries and the global environment,” said Archbishop Caccia. “Urgent preventive measures must be taken to guarantee the safety of civilians and protect creation.”
