After Ukrainian women were released in a prisoner swap with Russia, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church said their stories “simply break the heart, make the blood run cold in your veins.”
“This war will go down in history as one in which Russia uses sexual violence as a weapon against Ukraine,” said Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych.
On Oct. 17, more than 100 Ukrainian women were released from Russian captivity.
Ukrainian women who were prisoners of war walk after a swap with Russia in an unknown location Oct. 17, 2022. (CNS photo/Andriy Yermak, Ukraine’s Presidential Office via Reuters)
Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, said it was the first female-only exchange, and he called it “especially emotional and truly special.”
“Mothers and daughters, whose relatives were waiting for them, were held captive,” Yermak said.
On Oct. 18, Archbishop Shevchuk thanked God that the women were able to return to their families.
“Let us wrap these women together today with our attention, love and prayer, and warm them up with our national warmth,” he said.
Ukrainian women who were prisoners of war in Russia arrive in Zaporizhzhia Oct. 17, 2022.(CNS photo/Reuters)
Speaking of the latest military attacks on Ukraine, the archbishop also reflected on a separate Russian weapon: sexual violence against Ukrainian women and families.
He said in conditions of war, families found themselves in a sea of violence and malice that destroys a person.
“This war will go down in history as one in which Russia uses violence against the intimate sphere of a person as a weapon against Ukraine,” he said, citing statistics about rapes and pregnancies resulting from rape.
“It is impossible to imagine how much this violence against the intimate sphere of a person hurts the Ukrainian family, the dignity of men and women, destroys what the Lord God created for love,” the archbishop said.
News reports have detailed Russian tank crews raping women at will, including children.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general says that Russian soldiers were using rape as an “instrument of war” during its invasion.
Iryna Venediktova has accused Russian soldiers of using rape as an “instrument of war.”
She has opened the country’s first official rape investigation after a pair of drunk Russian soldiers reportedly killed a husband and repeatedly raped his wife.
She said the savages attacked the woman in Brovary, in east Kyiv, after breaking into the family’s home.
The account is one of tens of thousands now coming to light as Ukrainian troops retake territory previously occupied by Russian troops.
–Wire services and Catholic News Service