Ukrainian president calls on Western leaders to stop ‘war machine’
In a live address to Western leaders on Tuesday morning, Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelenskiy warned the Russian “war machine”, as he charged, will target them if it is not stopped.
Zelenskiy thanked countries who have “taken a moral stance”, as he underlined, against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Among others, the Ukrainian president said, “…We can stop Russia. We can stop the killing of people. It will be easier to do it together, to stop the destruction of democracy and stop it now on our land. Because otherwise, they will also come to you.”
Meanwhile, the number of people killed in air strikes against the Ukrainian capital in the morning has risen to four, according to Kiev’s mayor.
A series of Russian strikes hit a residential neighborhood in Kiev on Tuesday morning, igniting a huge fire and prompting a frantic rescue effort in a 15-storey apartment building.
Further to the east, civilians trapped in the besieged southeast Ukrainian port city of Mariupol are “…essentially being suffocated with no aid”, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
People in Mariupol are facing the impossible choices of how to feed their families and themselves and are trapped, an ICRC spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The Red Cross is hoping to organize the evacuation of civilians in two convoys of some 30 buses out of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy and their passage to a safe area, the same spokesperson said.
At the same time, the Romanian Orthodox Church continued its humanitarian aid initiative to help Ukrainian refugees arriving in Romania and Moldova, as well as civilians still in Ukraine.
Metropolitan of Syros Dorotheos leads supplication prayer towards St. Ignatius for peace in Ukraine
Back in Greece, but in a related development, the Metropolitan of Syros, His Eminence Dorotheos, on Tuesday led a supplication prayer towards St. Ignatius, Metropolitan of Mariupol, at a family chapel dedicated to the 18th century saint on the island of Kythnos, his birthplace.
Praying before a Holy Icon of the saint, His Eminence beseeched St. Ignatius for an end to the war in Ukraine and protection of civilians and refugees.
Archbishop of Athens Ieronymos calls on Russian Patriarch Kirill to intervene for end to war in Ukraine
Still in the country, members of the Holy Synod of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece convened on Tuesday for a second straight day. The Church of Greece Holy Synod has declared that the Church is ready to welcome refugees from Ukraine. Moreover, the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos, who chairs the Holy Synod, has conveyed a pastoral letter to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, His Holiness Kirill, imploring the latter to act towards immediately ending the Russian invasion.
Source: orthodoxianewsagency.gr
