0

Putin proved his intentions: Ukrainian church leader

Ukrainian Catholic church pastor calls for prayer, peace, and unity

Imagine if Kelowna’s airport or bridge was being bombed and foreign troops surrounded the city.

That’s how Father Pavlo Myts, with the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Kelowna, described the situation facing ordinary people in his home country following the invasion by Russian forces.

Only he, his wife, and two children are here, with the rest of his family and friends living in fear after the moves by Russia, that NATO characterized as a “brutal act of war," shattered peace in Europe.

Myts said he’s spoken with some family who have been within 35 kilometres of the Russian shelling and labelled the actions of President Vladimir Putin a continuation of the invasion that started in Crimea in 2014.

“We don’t want to go back into the Soviet Union or to be a colony of the Russian Federation,” Myts told Kelowna10. “It was obvious the Russian president didn’t like it [Ukraine being a democratic sovereign nation] and all the oligarchs who wanted to keep Ukraine a resource, as a colony, and today they proved their intention.”

Myts said some members of his congregation of around 150 had been coming to the church since late Wednesday or early Thursday morning to pray for peace.

But he added it was crucial Canada, the United States and its European allies remained united in terms of imposing sanctions on Putin’s Russia, otherwise he would be a threat not only to the entire country but to surrounding nations.

“People are worried because we have many Ukrainian immigrants and people who moved to Canada in recent years and we all have our families there,” he said. “Ukraine is not divided across the east and west, it’s only people who love Ukraine or don’t love Ukraine. They’re divided because they follow the prince of darkness in the world today."

Published 2022-02-24 by Glenn Hicks

Get a fresh daily look

See what’s happening in and around our city, and the people who call it home.

Our newsroom abides by the RTNDA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and follows the Canadian Press Stylebook. If you have any questions or concerns, or would like to send us a news tip, please contact us.

Kelowna10 is division of Pattison Media, and strives to achieve the highest ethical standards in all that we do.