Father Ruslan Mykhalkiv concelebrates the Mass with Father Miszka Romaniv in the church of the exaltation of the Holy Cross in Fastiv.
A partial, 30 -day respite, limited to energy infrastructure. This is what Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have come to define in their long phone call. A truce, in fact, partial, which does not mean at all – at least for now – cease the fire. Raids and attacks with drones continued incessantly, on both sides, all night last night. In Sumy, in the Northeast of Ukraine, the Russian forces hit two hospitals, one of which was a pediatric. Numerous explosions were felt around the night around Kyiv. Chernihiv, in the northern region, was also the target of attacks. Meanwhile, today, Putin has declared that “Russian forces are completing the operation to cancel Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region”.
“Last night it was very noisy, there were also attacks in our area, in Bucha hit several houses. Unfortunately, however, it is what we continue to live every day. The Russians, now we know from experience, never do what they say in words. They pretend to be for peace, to have good will, but in the end they continue to do what they want. On the one hand they accept the truce, on the other hand, however, they continue to provoke with the attacks to see what the reaction will be and understand which way is the best ». In the aftermath of the interview between the US President and the leader of the Kremlin, to speak by Vorzel, a town in the Kyiv region, is Father Ruslan Mykhakiv45 years old. Between 2012 and 2017 Father Ruslan studied moral theology in Italy, in Rome, at the Alfonse Academy, for some years he has been Rector of the major theological seminar of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of the diocese of Kyiv-Zythomyr.
At the beginning of the Russian invasion, in 2022, when Moscow troops from Belarus focused on Kyiv with the aim of dealing it, they launched a massive attack on the towns in the north-west of the capital, Irpin, Vorzel, Bucha, Borodyanka. The 25 seminarians with the rector and other trainers had to escape and Vorzel’s seminar was taken and plundered by the Russian forces, That everything they could have grabbed, including the glass that Pope John Paul II had used during the mass celebrated in Kyiv in 2001. In April the rector returned to the seminary (after receiving the state permit to return) with the hope of fixing it and resuming the activities as soon as possible. «Since the war began, the seminarians here are very few. Many guys, possible candidates to enter the seminary, have gone, most of them will no longer return ». Just as many Ukrainian families will no longer return abroad with their children, “that almost don’t know what Ukraine is, because they have gone as children, and with the passage of time they will hardly want to return here”.
International diplomacy is working to get to a negotiation. But Father Ruslan, like so many in Ukraine, observes with disenchanted gaze and very few illusions. Because many, too many are the unknowns. And the suffering, the open wounds, deep of the Ukrainian people. «We want to build a free society. Ukrainians love and want freedom. Of course, reaching it is a difficult, painful, tiring challenge ». And he continues: «Everything we are seeing internationally seems to me a game of poker, there are no certainties, we don’t really know what will happen. THESupport to Ukraine has weakened, with the hallway of the United States (who two weeks later renewed their commitment). What we see is that the Russians advance, Europe speaks aloud, but its support for Ukraine is unfortunately not omnipotent. The Russians, on the other hand, are very powerful and sow violence. With the negotiations, I don’t know where you will arrive and how it will go. I know that the Lord will act in some way, we must believe in his action, because human action is a disaster “.
Peace observes Father Ruslan, first of all means «Do not allow hatred to enter the heart, which is one of the most dangerous fruits of the war. Because if you begin to hate destroying not only materially but also spiritually. Soldiers also know that at the front if you let negative emotions like hatred enter your heart, it is finished, you are destroyed, in the risk of being killed. On a practical, political and social level, peace obviously means stopping the conflict. But we lived the war and stopped the Russians first in 2014. Then what happened? There was the invasion in 2022, because Russia was convinced that Europe would not oppose resistance. But he hurt his calculations. Now we have reached 2025 and we talk about peace negotiations. But who assures us that the war will not resume again in the coming years, in 2028, in 2030? Because we talk about people who have the obsession with destroying, eliminating. For the Russians the Ukrainian people do not exist, And if it exists in some form it is a mistake that must be corrected. Maybe I speak very hard, but my words are not dictated by emotions, they are simply based on the facts, on the observation of reality. If my opinion is wrong, I will be happy to change me back. I don’t have a fixed idea that I have to defend by force ».
As a priest, he reflects on forgiveness. “For me the basic question is: do we want to destroy or build with the other? The Lord teaches us to build the good, not to destroy it. But building is not a unique act, on one side only: the construction implies a relationship with another person. The Russians are proud of the war, they continue to cultivate their imperialist dream. So how should we act? I think we must keep and propose the good. But to do this we must have the opportunity to defend ourselves. And then we must reconstruct our society. It is clear that, however, the negotiations now go, our comparison with Russia will not be able to end because we share more than 1,500 kilometers of the border. Should we peaceful with them? Maybe this will happen, one day, maybe in fifty years … But it seems that they will never ask for forgiveness, they think that we Ukrainians have to apologize because we exist with our identity. The basic problem is precisely this: the Russians do not recognize our right to existence as a people ».
(The top photo: Father Ruslan Mykhalkiv, 45 years old, rector of the Vorzel theological seminar)
