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‘We look in absolute horror and shock’: A local Ukrainian priest offered an emotional prayer for peace
"Never did we think that we would have to explain to our children why their kindergartens and playgrounds are being bombed."
The latest on Ukraine
For Father Roman Tarnavsky, this time once seemed unimaginable.
On Wednesday, as Russian forces bombed Ukranian residences, businesses, and facilities and attempted to close in on the capital city, Kyiv, Tarnavsky told Boston city councilors the turmoil Russia has brought to his ancestral home is difficult to fathom.
“Bombs and rockets continue to fall on our peaceful cities,” said Tarnavsky, of St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Jamaica Plain. “We look in absolute horror and shock. Our infrastructure destroyed. Our architectural and historical buildings, monuments, and churches damaged, families displaced.
“Never in our dreams did we envision our people having to once again sleep in bomb shelters,” he continued, emotion sewn into the slow cadence of his voice. “Never did we think we would have to explain to our children why their kindergartens and playgrounds are being bombed, and why there are other human beings trying to kill us.”
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Tarnavsky was invited by the council to give the regular invocation ahead of its Wednesday meeting, where councilors also voted to unanimously pass a resolution condemning the “unprovoked invasion and egregious act of aggression against Ukraine by the Russian federation.”
“What we’re seeing on the television in this moment, in the 21st century, it’s such a sad and tragic situation that we do not have better mechanisms to solve and promote international cooperation and peace,” said Councilor Liz Breadon, a co-sponsor of the resolution.
Council President Ed Flynn, who was also a co-sponsor of the measure, said, “The U.S. has always stood with people in need, and that’s something we’re proud of and we’re going to continue to do.”
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The resolution, a symbolic gesture, professes support of Ukraine’s independence, calls for an end to the war waged by Russia, and calls on the U.S. government to increase humanitarian support as more than 600,000 refugees have fled Ukraine over the past week.
At the request of Councilor Michael Flaherty, the council voted to amend the resolution to include language calling on President Joe Biden to stop the U.S. from purchasing Russian oil, as the country and others around the globe impose other economic sanctions on Russia.
“The fact that we’re participating in their economy is unconscionable,” Flaherty said.
Several councilors made clear, however, their support for Ukraine and stance against the Russian government should not be interpreted as hostility to the Russian people at large, especially immigrants.
“Russian folks living in the city of Boston are not our enemy,” Breadon said. “Many of them fled oppression and persecution in the former Soviet Union, and they sought shelter and they were refugees here along with their Ukrainian neighbors.”
In prayer, Tarnavsky asked for peace in Ukraine and asked God to “strengthen the people as they face this great danger.”
Tarnavsky, in remarks that followed, described the war this past week as “cynical, evil, and inexcusable attacks.”
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“This is all hard to bear, but bear it we will,” he said. “Our people are loving, kind, charitable. But they are also strong, courageous, full of resolve, and ready to fight to defend their way of life.”
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