The first round of trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States, in Abu Dhabi, ended in nothing. Beyond the diplomatic declarations which, from all sides, speak of a constructive start, and the announcement that the talks will continue next weekend, at the end of the first two days of meetings only one thing is certain: it is still early to talk about the end of the war in Ukraine. The territorial question continues to be the most critical and crucial point on which the positions are clearly distant.
On the other hand, while the three delegations were gathered in the Arab Emirates, Moscow launched a new series of massive attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv during the night, in a particularly difficult winter because it was even colder than in previous years.
From the capital, submerged by snow and frost, brought to its knees by the energy emergency caused by the Russian bombings, recounting daily life and the difficulties of these days is Father Luca Bovio, a Consolata missionary who has been in Poland for many years and the first director of the Pontifical Missionary Works in Ukraine. Temperatures have been fluctuating between minus 10 and minus 20 degrees for weeks, says Father Luca, who published his testimony on the website of the magazine of the Consolata Missions. In Ukraine, winter severity is normal, but it becomes a huge problem with blackouts of electricity, water and heating. Every day, not only in Kyiv but throughout the country, a bulletin is issued indicating the electricity supply times for the following day, which can be just a few hours.
Forecasts say the frost will last much longer. “Even the schools in the capital will remain closed until February due to lack of energy”, writes Father Luca. “What little there is must be used with priorities such as hospitals and public transport which are still functioning.” Daily life in cities – shops, shopping centers, but also homes, or at least those that can afford them – goes on thanks to electricity generators. «At this time we too are trying to purchase small generators to offer to those who need them most. An average cost for a generator that produces around 4 kW is around 500 euros.”
The Pontifical Missionary Works in Ukraine were born in 2025, with Father Luca Bovio who took on the new role, now resides permanently in Kyiv and is traveling throughout the country to meet the dioceses, bishops, Catholic communities and build the new structure together with them. The missionary spent last Christmas in the parish of the Sacred Heart of Cherson, a city in the south of the country, along the front line, a constant target, day and night, of Russian attacks with missiles and especially drones. The Church of the Sacred Heart, the only Latin rite Catholic church in Kherson, is headed by Father Maksym Padlevskyi. The city has been emptied during the war, the streets are almost deserted, most of the faithful have long since left, but the parish has never stopped its activities and continues catechism with the very few remaining children.
In Kherson, Father Luca, who since the beginning of the war has been busy bringing humanitarian aid to the affected population in the areas close to the front, from Donetsk to Kharkiv to Mikolaiv, at Christmas he managed to bring a load of medicines collected in Italy and then distributed to different hospitals in the city.
