Mags GarganUkraine's Catholic bishops have warned their country is now "flowing in blood," and urged Western governments not to become "accomplices in the sin of murder" by failing to support it.
"This peaceful sovereign nation has been subjected to a direct military intervention by a northern neighbour – hundreds of units of heavy weaponry and technology, thousands of armed mercenaries and soldiers of Russia's standing army are crossing the borders of Ukraine, sowing death and destruction, in disregard for the terms of the cease-fire and recent diplomatic efforts," the bishops said.
Death toll
"If these crimes are not stopped immediately, with the onset of the winter cold the death toll will increase tenfold. Those who kill people in Ukraine today will not hesitate tomorrow to turn their weaponry against anyone in their own country and beyond its borders, or to attack any other nation in the world."
The statement was published during a weeklong meeting of the Ukrainian Catholic Church's governing synod. It said the "real state of affairs" in Ukraine was being distorted by propaganda, which had reached an "unprecedented level of hatred" and proved "no less damaging than weapons of mass destruction”.