'We offer our body and soul for our freedom,' Ukrainian Catholic leader says in new appeal (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church)

“Our country is in danger again,” Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said in an appeal issued February 24. “The treacherous enemy, despite his own commitments and assurances, breaking the basic norms of international law, as an unjust aggressor, stepped on Ukrainian soil, bringing with him death and destruction.”

“Our Ukraine, which the world fairly called ‘lands of blood,’ which has been so many times sprinkled with the blood of martyrs and fighters for the freedom and independence of its people, calls us today to stand up for it—to defend its dignity before God and humanity, its rights for existence and the right to choose one’s future,” he continued.

“It is our natural right and sacred duty to defend our land and our people, our state and all that is dearest to us: family, language and culture, history and the spiritual world! ... At this historic moment, the voice of our conscience calls us all as one to stand up for a free, united and independent Ukrainian state!”