‘Someone suffers’ every time Russia attacks Ukraine, says Basilian nun in Zaporizhzhia

As Russia intensifies its strikes on Ukraine, Basilian Sisters in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia are asking for prayers and charitable support for those they serve.

“Every time we are attacked, someone suffers,” Sister Lucia Murashko of the order’s Holy Trinity Province told OSV News via text message Oct. 22.

The Basilian Sisters — who have communities in the U.S. and the order’s native Ukraine, as well as in Argentina, Croatia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia — have become known for their tireless efforts to aid Ukrainian refugees and internally displaced persons amid Russia’s brutal aggression, which continues attacks launched in 2014. The assaults on Ukraine have been named a genocide in two joint reports from the New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights.

Since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Sister Lucia along with fellow Basilian Sisters Yelysaveta Varnitska and Bernadeta Dvernytska have remained in place at their monastery less than 40 miles from the front line. OSV News visited the monastery in September while traveling in a delegation led by Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.

Since OSV News’ visit, Russia has doubled down on targeting the city of Zaporizhzhia, located in the Ukraine-held area of the oblast, or province, of the same name.

While the sisters’ monastery has so far been spared, the strikes, which are routinely aimed at civilian buildings, have directly impacted the Basilians’ loved ones.

“Some of our friends are very close to the damaged places,” Sister Lucia told OSV News.

Cellphone pictures Sister Lucia shared with OSV News show Zaporizhzhia-area homes and civilian structures completely demolished by Russian weapons, including guided bombs, also known as “glide bombs.”

The ordnance, fitted with wings and satellite navigation aids, are able to elude Ukrainian defenses. The bombs often reach their targets even before Ukraine’s air alerts, which run continuously due to Russia’s relentless strikes, can sound in time to permit residents to seek shelter, Archbishop Gudziak told OSV News during a September on-site interview in the city of Kharkiv.

Yet the Basilian Sisters — who in February received the 2023-2024 Lumen Christi Award, the highest honor conferred by the Chicago-based nonprofit Catholic Extension, in part for their ministry in Ukraine — are steadfast in their desire to bring material and spiritual aid to their community, said Sister Lucia.

“It is terrible. The war is terrible,” Sister Lucia told OSV News. “Please continue to pray for us.”

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