More than eleven months of war in Ukraine have left huge numbers of men, women and children living in desperate
need of help. This winter is set to be the hardest in living memory for millions of people in Ukraine. Missile strikes and intense heavy bombing have been devastating towns and cities, with people now living in houses and buildings with blown-out windows and bomb damaged roofs.
In a typical Ukrainian winter, 105 days will be below freezing point. Brutally cold temperatures as low as -20C are
not unusual. Living without heating or electricity in these conditions could be highly risky and fatal. According to the
Ukrainian Government, 50% of all energy plants have been destroyed and recent Russian drone attacks are destroying the remaining plants, making the daily lives of Ukrainians much more difficult than it already is, to the point of making it impossible to survive the winter in these places.
Concern over the bitter winter cold led the bishop of the Catholic diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia, Bishop Pavlo
Honcharuk, to ask ACN for help, to avoid the worst of consequences. “Winter is here and it is a big challenge to warm homes and cook food, because not everybody has access to electricity or gas. Many people have come to us asking for help,”
Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk tells ACN. ACN wants to respond to these urgent and most basic needs. With your kind
generosity, ACN wants to fund projects such as the purchase of wood stoves and generators for parish houses, seminaries, convents that are now providing desperately needed shelter for displaced families, especially in the Diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia, in eastern Ukraine, where winters are particularly harsh.
“We are going through an extremely difficult period in Ukraine,” says Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk. “Once again, we are
very grateful for ACN benefactors’ help. We are also grateful for the prayers and the support we have received from so many people during the war. May God reward abundantly all the benefactors of your organisation, one-hundred-fold.”
