CNEWA

War in Ukraine

people hand out food packages outdoors in Ukraine.
Caritas Ukraine runs more than 30 centers for the displaced, providing emergency items such as food, medicines and hygienic supplies. Ivano-Frankivsk, 27 February. (photo: courtesy Caritas Ukraine)

Two years since the invasion of Ukraine, the war has cost thousands of lives, left millions shattered and devastated the “breadbasket of Europe.” Yet, the spirit of the Ukrainian people remains indomitable.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has displaced a third of the nation’s 41 million people, physically, emotionally or mentally scarred and wounded its soldiers and much of its population and has destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure and economy. The horrific assault on the Ukrainian people — their way of life, their identity, their God-given rights and freedoms — is more than a conventional war; it’s an attempt to eradicate a nation and a people.

“But God is working there among this tragedy. … Ukraine is uniting people of good will everywhere, and people are beginning to believe again, as Ukrainians face death with courage, defending human life.”

Metropolitan Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

How We’re Helping

CNEWA has long worked in Ukraine, helping the local churches to educate and form the next generation of church and civic leaders, meet the needs of the marginalized — especially their rehabilitation initiatives and social services for the elderly and those with special needs — and now, in time of war, respond to the needs of the displaced.

Ukraine’s churches are on the front lines of this war, tending to the needs of all those in harm’s way, regardless of their faith. Over the past year, CNEWA has rushed $5.8 million in emergency funds to church-led relief efforts in Ukraine and in neighboring countries receiving those fleeing the missiles.

We’ve sent emergency food packages and supported hot food distribution centers in areas under siege. We’ve provided care for displaced pensioners near Odesa, shelter for people with special needs in Sambir-Drohobych, and spiritual and psychological counseling for those displaced to Ternopil. In Zaporizhzhia, we’ve helped displaced families from Mariupol locate temporary housing. And we’ve provided medicines and other aid to nine medical facilities, including Sheptytsky Hospital in Lviv.

The needs of the Ukrainian people are only growing, and CNEWA will need additional resources to meet them.

Will you stand with us as we stand with them?

Your prayers and gifts will care for our brothers and sisters whose lives have been upended by this senseless onslaught of violence and hatred. As well, please join the Holy Father as we continue to pray for peace, invoking Our Lady’s protection of all human life:

“May the Queen of Peace preserve the world from the madness of war.”

May God bless you.

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