Uber driver arrested for starting LA blaze that killed 12
A 29-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a devastating wildfire that killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes in Los Angeles ea...
Around 25 miles (40 km) from the advancing Russian frontline, a Ukrainian Catholic community in the eastern city of Zaporizhzhia is offering spiritual and material support to people fleeing occupied territories.
Church members are delivering humanitarian aid to troops and frontline villages, while nuns provide emotional care to families and children displaced by war.
"When kids come, especially little ones, they feel safe and cling to us, needing hugs and warmth. New kids always need that embrace," said Sister Lukia Murashko, the mother superior at the Order of Saint Basil the Great monastery in Zaporizhzhia.
The monastery offers a welcoming atmosphere, decorated with Ukrainian flags and greeting cards from soldiers.
In June, Sister Lukia and two other nuns baked a cake for the 15th birthday of Evhen, a boy who fled Russian-occupied Melitopol and now lives in a run-down hostel in the city.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church — a Vatican-loyal denomination with eastern Orthodox-style rites — has over 4 million adherents and is the country’s largest branch of Catholicism.
While Orthodox Christianity remains dominant, it has seen a decline over the past decade amid tensions related to its ties with Moscow. In contrast, the Catholic Church has grown, now accounting for 12% of Ukraine’s population, according to a 2024 study by the Razumkov Centre.
Catholicism, traditionally rooted in Ukraine’s west, has been expanding eastward — into areas Russia claims as its own, including those occupied in 2014 and during the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Zaporizhzhia, while not under Moscow's control, has become a major hub for internally displaced Ukrainians. With a growing congregation, the city’s wooden St. Volodymyr chapel is undergoing expansion.
Roman Catholicism also has a small but present community there.
In June, a Divine Liturgy was held at the chapel by Father Andriy Bukhvak, attended by about two dozen worshippers and three priests in gold-brocade vestments, most of them displaced by the war.
After Russian forces occupied most of the Zaporizhzhia region in 2022, local authorities banned the Ukrainian Catholic Church and affiliated charities. A 6 December, 2022 decree accused the Church of working with foreign intelligence services and storing weapons.
The decree also alleged that parishioners had participated "in riots and anti-Russian rallies in March-April 2022."
The office of the Russia-installed governor in occupied Zaporizhzhia did not immediately respond to a detailed request for comment.
Father Oleksandr Bohomaz, 36, served in Melitopol — a coastal city in Zaporizhzhia region — for nine months after its capture by Russian forces on 1 March, 2022.
Alongside two other priests, he continued to serve four parishes and support those unable to flee.
"We travelled around, serving as much as possible until they eventually deported us," he said.
During his time under occupation, authorities disrupted services and collected worshippers’ fingerprints.
In December 2022, Bohomaz was interrogated and escorted to a checkpoint where he was told to cross into Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Other clergy have faced worse.
In November 2022, Russian troops raided a Greek Catholic church in Berdiansk, around 100 km from Melitopol.
Two priests — Ivan Levitsky and Bohdan Geleta — were arrested on charges of illegally possessing weapons.
According to a December 2024 report by the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, they were released in a June 2024 prisoner exchange.
The Church has denied the charges.
Religion has become increasingly entangled with the conflict.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill has endorsed the invasion, calling it a Holy War.
Last August, Ukrainian authorities banned the Ukrainian Orthodox Church branch loyal to Moscow.
Its leader, Patriarch Pavlo, was placed under house arrest in 2023.
The U.S.-backed International Religious Freedom and Belief Alliance (IRFBA) has accused Russia of widespread religious persecution in Ukraine.
In a February report, the alliance claimed Russian troops had killed 67 clergy of various denominations and damaged more than 630 religious buildings, including 596 churches.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the report, calling it biased and stating that any actions taken were lawful.
Since 2014, the Ukrainian Catholic Donetsk Exarchate — responsible for much of eastern Ukraine — has operated from exile in Zaporizhzhia.
Of its 77 parishes, 36 are currently under Russian control.
Stepan Meniok, 75, led the Exarchate until his retirement in 2024. He was driven from Donetsk when Russian-backed separatists seized the city in 2014.
"Many displaced people pass through here, and I’ve heard countless stories of loss: property, lives," Meniok said.
He added that he hopes for peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow.
Father Bohomaz believes the Ukrainian Catholic Church is targeted for its resistance to occupation.
"We see our people being beaten, killed, robbed, and destroyed," he said. "We stand with the people."
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
Escalating gang violence in Haiti has displaced 680,000 children, nearly twice as many as last year, as armed groups seize more territory and basic services collapse, UNICEF warned on Wednesday.
A 29-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a devastating wildfire that killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes in Los Angeles earlier this year.
The 7th Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan has concluded in Russia with participants issuing a joint statement heavily hinting at a joint opposition to any foreign military infrastructure in Afghanistan.
Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to criminal charges, and his lawyer said he would file a barrage of legal challenges to the first prosecution by the Justice Department against one of President Donald Trump's political enemies.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to attend a ministerial meeting in Paris on Thursday with representatives of Europe, the Arab world and other nations to discuss Gaza's post-conflict transition, according to three diplomatic sources.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment