THE Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, has accused Russia of misusing diplomacy to “drag out negotiations”. But he praised European leaders for their continued readiness to support his country.
“On the day of the Annunciation, preliminary agreements between the Ukrainian, American, and Russian delegations, meeting in Saudi Arabia, were made public — including a Black Sea ceasefire and the opening of trade corridors,” Archbishop Shevchuk said.
“The majority of Ukrainian citizens, however, took these reports of an achieved truce very cautiously. Christ says: ‘By their fruits you will know them,’ and ordinary people trust concrete deeds, not signed papers.”
The Archbishop, who is based in Kyiv, published the message as Russian drones and missiles struck Kharkiv, Dnipro, Kherson, Odesa, and other cities, despite a 30-day halt to attacks on energy and infrastructure targets agreed on 18 March.
He said that the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, had warned European leaders at last week’s Paris summit that Russia had “no intention of stopping the war or implementing any kind of truce”, and would merely exploit negotiations to “plan new offensives”.
“Heavy fighting is continuing all along the front line — despite ceasefire agreements at the highest level,” Archbishop Shevchuk said. “Let’s see how far the signed agreements will be implemented. We know the aggressor despises diplomacy, using it only to drag out negotiations and justify aggressive plans drawn up in advance.”
The warning follows a month of intermittent talks, as President Trump’s new administration has attempted to broker peace in the three-year war.
Speaking earlier this week, President Trump voiced frustration over delaying tactics by President Putin, and threatened tariffs on Russian oil exports, but also accused Ukraine of backsliding on a recent economic deal with the United States.
On Tuesday, however, a Russian official, Sergei Ryabkov, confirmed that key Russian demands for resolution of the “root causes of the conflict” had not been addressed by US negotiators.
Moscow has demanded the easing of Western sanctions, and an end to all arms and intelligence support for Ukraine, while calling on Kyiv to agree to demilitarisation and to recognise its annexation of Crimea and four partially occupied Ukrainian regions.
On Tuesday, half of all US senators called for new sanctions to be imposed on Moscow if it failed to “engage in good faith” in peace negotiations.
In his message, Archbishop Shevchuk said that in the past week there had been more “great crimes on Ukrainian territory, including a missile strike on the northern city of Sumy, which wounded over 100 civilians”.
He went on to say, however, that Ukrainians had welcomed the emergence of “a group of countries with strong-willed people” in Europe, who were forming a “special coalition” to deploy troops to secure a future peace deal.
“We hope that at least those agreements on the exchange of prisoners of war and the release of our children from Russian captivity will be fulfilled,” Archbishop Shevchuk said, “and that democracy . . . and respect for human life will prevail over the plans of modern world aggressors.”
Observers from Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church attended an assembly in Rome last week of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), which deplored the uncertainty facing Ukrainians over “recent geopolitical developments”, amid “ruthless competition and violent confrontations, often in blatant violation of international law”.
“The rise in global tension, fomented by growing isolationism and a deepening of rifts, is eroding multilateralism and weakening democratic principles,” COMECE said in its concluding statement.
“We recognise the need for a strong EU capable of protecting, in these uncertain times, not only its citizens but also values championed in Europe and indeed across the world. We nevertheless believe that the EU’s original vocation is to be a project of peace. Any necessary, proportionate and adequate investments towards European defence must not come at the expense of efforts aimed at promoting human dignity, justice, integral human development and the care of creation.”