Thank you for the invitation to this prestigious conference and for paying so much attention to Ukraine! There are many conflicts in the world, but there is only one in which a country (known to everyone) with a regular army, invaded a neighboring sovereign state.
10 minutes is not enough to objectively present the humanitarian situation of war-torn Ukraine. I would like to remind you that the war in Ukraine has been going on for almost 10 years. But if during the years of the hybrid war, our country could control the humanitarian situation, now, during the full-scale Russian aggression, when the state economy is almost completely paralyzed, people's living conditions have become very difficult. If it were not for the solidarity and support of the civilized world, the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine would be incomparably greater.
Therefore, here, I want to thank our Church, every organization, person and country for not leaving my country to be destroyed by a blinded aggressor. Thank you not only for the Ukrainian flags in your cities - but for everything that stands behind them! I especially want to thank the community of Sant'Egidio for their prayers for a just peace in Ukraine and all the help to those in need, and not only during this terrible war.
The state of our affairs is actually complicated. General war fatigue, the pain of losing loved ones, uncertainty about the future - these are just some of the main pains of the Ukrainian people.
If you try to estimate the material losses incurred, only those already documented (as of June 2023) amount to 150 billion US dollars. And what is characteristic, the figure of 100 billion was reached already in the fourth month of the full-scale Russian invasion.
It is worth highlighting three main categories of damages:
- Residential buildings - 56 billion dollars.
- Infrastructure - 36.6 billion dollars.
- Enterprises, industry - 11.4 billion dollars
Together, 2/3 of all other losses.
Many of our citizens have no home at all to return to.
The question is rhetorical (but still unanswered for some) - against whom is this war being waged? Simple people and the poorest always pay the highest price.
Among the most painful moments for us, I would like to present only a few:
Energy
90 years ago, the Moscow authorities already tried to destroy the Ukrainian nation through the Holodomor genocide. Last year, they tried to freeze Ukraine. In 2.5 months, since September 11 (symbolic date), Russia has launched missile attacks on 125 energy facilities. On November 24, 2022, for the first time in history, the energy system of Ukraine experienced a blackout, lost its unity and disintegrated into small parts.
Please imagine the life of a young mother with a two-year-old child and in the 9th month of pregnancy who lives on the 18th floor of an apartment building that is completely dependent on electricity during the coldest months of the year, and the heating, light and water disappeared altogether. Whilst her husband defends his family and Ukraine at the front.
We are on the threshold of a new winter, as on the threshold of a new test.
Education
This is a very painful topic. After two years of the pandemic, our pupils and students have a second year of combined learning - mostly distance learning (online). In addition, as a result of the war, 3,400 educational institutions were damaged or completely destroyed. Damages in this area amount to almost 10 billion dollars.
Grain crisis
As already mentioned, food problems in Ukraine can only be created artificially. We are grateful to God for the fertile soil and we can use it to feed a large part of the world, especially those countries where hunger is a daily challenge. Since February 24, 2022, many of us have experienced a lack of food ourselves. Today, we are also not able to provide all those in need with our harvest.
Between July 23, 2023, when Russia suspended the Black Sea Initiative and the humanitarian corridor, in just the first 9 days, the Russians destroyed or damaged 26 port facilities and 5 civilian vessels. As a result of the drone attack, on August 23, 13,000 tons of grain were simultaneously destroyed in the port of Izmail.
Ukrainian fields where, for various reasons, countless crops have rotted or burned evoke tears. The Russians stole about 4 million tons of grain and quite successfully sold it on the world market.
Children
During the full-scale war, 1,564 children were injured. 496 of them were killed.
But the deportation of Ukrainian citizens and their children to the territory of the aggressor is no less difficult and urgent issue. We will know the exact numbers only after many years. The Ukrainian authorities have already identified about 20,000 such children. However, the actual figures range from 150,000 to 300,000 deportees.
This is not just a sentimental issue. Children are the future of our country. The terrorist country is also well aware of this.
And more about children. For the first time in my life, on St. Nicholas Day I heard little children asking for nothing more than: peace, Ukrainian victory in this terrible war, for dad returning home alive and healthy... and for the death of the leader of a well-known country...
These children will never forget the pain of war.
I could go on and on about the complexities of the health care system; about poor and bedridden sick people; about those who do not have the means for a decent life; about children without a childhood and about youth with uncertainty about the future; about elderly people deprived of a peaceful old age; about people with serious injuries and not only physical ones. It is worth mentioning the environmental disasters (there are actually more of them than just the consequences of the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant) and many other things.
However, the cooperation with the community of Sant'Egidio taught me how people of faith and open to goodness know how to help those in need. To give bread to those who do not have it, to warm those who are cold, to pray and fight for peace where there is lack of it.
Once again, thank you for everything that Ukraine has received in this difficult time, including from those present in this hall. I humbly ask you to take every possible step so that the peace we pray for together would be not only theoretical, but together with God's help, we could stop the actions of the enemy of human good on a global scale.
Ukraine strives to stop depending on foreign aid as soon as possible and promptly join those who can give aid to others.
Thank you!