Anniversary of war in Ukraine
‘You aren’t forgotten at all. I hold you in the light daily.’ One Friend’s message to Quakers in Kyiv.
Quakers are coming together to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With vigils and witness planned across the county, Friends are gathering to uphold all those suffering from the war since it started on 24 February 2022.
As the day approached, Quakers of Kyiv shared a report on its Facebook page showing that there have been more than 6,000 children from Ukraine held in Russian custody since the invasion began. The children aged from four months to seventeen years old have been held in camps and other facilities in Russia-occupied Crimea and Russia, with at least forty-three facilities in its network.
Quakers in Kyiv also shared messages of support from Friends, with one writing: ‘You aren’t forgotten at all. I hold you in the light daily.’
Northern Friends Peace Board highlighted calls from the International Peace Bureau (IPB) for a weekend of global action in support of peace in Ukraine: ‘There is no easy solution to the war in Ukraine, but the current track we are on is unsustainable. Through global demonstrations for peace, we seek to pressure the two sides to establish a ceasefire and to take steps toward negotiations for long-term peace.’
The statement from IPB continued: ‘Our calls for peace are not limited to Ukraine – for all conflicts in the world, we implore governments to refuse the logic of confrontation and war, to oppose the nuclear peril, and to commit themselves to disarmament by signing the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty.’
Quaker Meetings such as Milton Keynes are holding their own peace vigils to mark the day, while others will join events including an ecumenical prayer service in the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in London, and later at the statue of Volodymyr I Sviatoslavych in Holland Park. Other Friends plan to join evening prayers in St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral in Edinburgh. There will be online prayers for peace in Ukraine, led by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Church and Peace, the Methodist Peace Fellowship, and Cymdeithas y Cymod.
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