Gina Christian

Catholics throughout the U.S. are standing in solidarity with Ukraine, as that nation marks the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine marks its first anniversary, the U.S. bishops’ international policy chairman pleaded for peace amid a war that has left “no corner of the globe untouched.”

U.S. President Joe Biden’s unexpected Feb. 20 visit to Kyiv, calmly walking alongside Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as air raid sirens wailed in the capital, is being hailed as a surprise and a signal to the world, Ukrainian Catholic leaders told OSV News.

Russia’s aggression poses “the biggest threat to religious freedom in Ukraine,” said Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak, head of all Ukrainian Catholics in the U.S., during a Jan. 30 panel discussion on the subject.