Scottish Catholic Observer

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said a ‘ceasefire process’ had been agreed upon earlier today raising hopes of an end to the six month conflict between the Ukrainian Government and Russian backed separatists.

Archbishop Thomas Gullickson, has served as apostolic nuncio to Ukraine since 2011 and voiced concern for the life of the Church in Ukraine, saying in effect that Russian aggression places the Church’s institutional survival at risk.

The nuncio underscored that ‘to ask what should have been done, as if it were too late, would be to write off Ukraine entirely and that would be wrong. I suppose anyone could counter by saying ‘who is kidding whom’? Can the world’s movers and shakers effectively intervene for the sake of justice and to promote lasting peace? They should at least try. Why not hope for a better world?’

“We owe people more than an after-the-fact aid intervention to bind up wounds and restore essential services destroyed by an aggressor; we owe them more than a belated salvage operation, if you will,” he said.

According to the BBC, nearly 2,600 people have been killed since April, when Russia’s annexation of Crimea prompted rebels to take over large parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Picture: Pro Russian protestors clashing with police in Donetsk