On the night of October 21–22, 2026, the russian terrorist state carried out another massive ballistic attack on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. According to official figures, more than 20 missiles of various types and more than 200 drones were used. Missile strikes hit six districts of Kyiv and infrastructure facilities. Many residential buildings, medical facilities, shopping centers, gas stations, an Orthodox monastery near the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, vehicles, and other sites were destroyed or damaged. At least 22 people were injured, including four children, and one person was killed, All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations said in a statement.
It is particularly important to note that, according to specialists’ reports, russia struck Kyiv overnight with an Iskander missile carrying a cluster warhead. It explodes above the ground and is designed to inflict maximum casualties across an area of 400 by 400 meters. Clearly, this type of missile was used for terrorist purposes, with the aim of causing the greatest possible destruction in Kyiv’s historic center and injuring as many civilians as possible.
The intensification of missile and drone attacks on cities across Ukraine comes amid efforts by representatives of certain Western countries to improve relations with the aggressor state. In our view, attempts to appease the terrorist state, to place the aggressor and the victim of aggression on the same moral footing, and to blame Ukraine rather than russia for the escalation are deeply misguided and cannot lead to the common good or to peace.
We welcome certain humanitarian actions by russia’s leadership, such as the release of hostages unjustly held in prisons by the kremlin regime. But these actions do not justify calling the russian dictator a “humanist.” He is personally responsible for state terror against Ukraine and its civilian population, and for the deaths and destruction caused by russian weapons—attacks that have only intensified in recent weeks.
According to official data from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, since February 2022 and to the present, nearly 300,000 crimes related to russian aggression and more than 270,000 crimes against peace, human security, and international law and order have been recorded. The officially recorded toll is 19,349 civilians killed and 55,020 injured; 762 children killed and 2,960 injured. A total of 311,608 buildings, 1,712 medical facilities, 967 religious buildings, and 14,177 network and communications facilities have been destroyed or damaged. In addition, instances of russia’s use of prohibited means of warfare have been documented, including chemical weapons, phosphorus and thermobaric munitions, incendiary weapons, and other means. In four and a half years of russia’s full-scale aggression, 3,466 attacks have been carried out against 1,194 Ukrainian electricity facilities. A total of 411 cases of conflict-related sexual violence by russian service members have been officially recorded; 258 women and 153 men experienced such violence, including 27 children.
All these crimes and killings are incompatible with the universally accepted meaning of humanism. They are deliberate acts of terrorism and genocide. Ukrainian civilians and children who were killed or suffered violence at the hands of russian terrorists have suffered just as people do from terror in other parts of the world. Ukrainians are human beings created by God, like everyone else, and deserve the same protection from acts of terror as any person.
We are convinced that only resolute and consistent support for Ukraine can stop the terrorist russian regime, prevent its war of aggression from spreading further in Europe and around the world, and avert further destruction and loss of life. A clear position and voice in support of Ukraine from governments, churches, nongovernmental organizations, intellectuals, and societies at large—and their condemnation of manifest evil—are critically important in the fifth year of the full-scale war launched by russia against Ukraine. Evil can be stopped only by condemning it, not by justifying it.
Therefore, we, Ukrainian religious leaders of various denominations, call on the governments of democratic countries to strengthen their support for Ukraine and increase sanctions pressure on russia, russian politicians, businesspeople, journalists, and religious leaders who are complicit in the ongoing crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
We thank all our international partners and every concerned person who has not tired of standing on the side of good, showing solidarity with the Ukrainian people, and supporting Ukraine. May the Almighty bless all who sincerely and truthfully strive to end russian state terror and establish peace in Ukraine!
