Kharkiv bishop: Stop fighting and ensure safety of humanitarian convoys

Metropolitan Onufriy of Kharkiv and Bohodukhiv called on everyone on whom it depends to stop the hostilities and ensure the safety of humanitarian convoys, reports the press service of the Kharkiv Eparchy.

"To prevent more victims and suffering of our people, we appeal to everyone on whom it depends, stop the military strikes on the homes of civilians and Orthodox churches, help provide safe humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians and children from settlements in which it is dangerous to live and stay," Metropolitan Onufriy urged.

"Every day in the Kharkiv region, explosions are heard, peaceful, innocent people are killed, children die. Many Kharkiv citizens were forced to leave their homes and sit in bomb shelters or become refugees and displaced persons. From the first days of the war, the Kharkiv Eparchy churches have been sheltering people, providing them with medical and spiritual care. The clergymen of the Kharkiv Eparchy of the UOC provide food and goods of prime necessity to all the needy," added the head of the Kharkiv Eparchy.

Metropolitan Onufriy listed the churches in Kharkiv, which have suffered as a result of shelling. They are the Church of Holy Myrrh-bearers, the Assumption Cathedral, St. Anthony’s University Church, the Church of Sts Simeon and Anna the Prophetess in Yakovlevka village of the Kharkiv region, the Church of Queen Tamara in Piatikhatki and the Ascension Church in the urban-type settlement Zolochiv. 

"In these temples, the blast wave took out all doors and windows, destroyed stained glass and damaged church utensils," he said.

As reported earlier, humanitarian aid from the Romanian Church arrived in Kharkiv and Zhytomyr eparchies.

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