The charity's response to Ukraine's call for more ambulances follows reports of continued attacks since the Ukraine-Russia war began in 2022.

The decommissioned Hato Hone St John ambulances are now in Kyiv.

They will be serviced before being put to use to support Ukraine on the front lines, says Kiwi KARE director Tenby Powell (pictured).

He says the emergency vehicles are vital to helping Ukraine in the war.

"Since the start of the invasion in February 2022, more than 800 Ukrainian hospitals and medical centres have been attacked by Russian artillery, drones and missiles, with 150 completely destroyed."

Kiwi KARE vital support

This is the second ambulance fleet Kiwi KARE has sent to Ukraine. Exactly a year ago it sent seven ambulances filled with medical supplies to the war-damaged country.

So far the charity has provided 30 vehicles to the Ukraine war effort. These are being used to deliver medical and humanitarian aid and transport refugees in addition to evacuating the sick and injured.

They're also being used to reach civilians in the ongoing war's red zone areas.

"We need all the help we can get and we are very grateful to the many New Zealanders who have generously supported Kiwi KARE," Powell says.

He says the charity is also making stoves and water heaters for residents.

They're fashioning them from electrical water boilers that are collected from across Ukraine.

"To date, we have distributed over 2500 stoves to families in desperate need," he says.

"Ukrainian fabricators strip and re-weld the recycled cylinders and we distribute them to red zone areas where power and water infrastructure has been completely destroyed."

Ukrainian troops launched a surprise attack into Russian border territory last Tuesday. They forced Russia to evacuate residents from regions near the border.

Source

• Stuff

Russia's government also persecutes other faith communities in the war-torn country.

Desecration, violence

Ukrainian military chaplain Mark Sergeev was a youth pastor until Russian troops seized his home town.

Sergeev said that Russian troops terrorised him and his nine-year old son, while forcing his father on pain of torture to make a video in front of the church saying "this is already Russian territory and Putin is our president".

Russian troops took over the church, tore down its 12-metre cross and replaced it with the Russian flag. The church is now used for troops' social events.

Clergy targeted

Professor Catherine Wanner from Pennsylvania State University is a specialist on religion in Soviet and post-Soviet Ukraine.

Religious persecution has been part of the war since its outset in 2022, she said.

She told the Commission that since 2022 "over 40 clergy have faced reprisals and five have been killed".

The Ukraine's broad religious diversity "clashes with the imposition of the Russian world ideology that comes with Russian rule" she explained.

Testimony about religious persecution given by Steven Moore, a former chief of staff in the US House of Representatives and humanitarian aid facilitator, lined up with Wanner's.

He has spent a significant period in Ukraine since the war started and recounted several cases of Ukrainian pastors being beaten and tortured by Russian agents and officials.

"Most Ukrainian Christians can't speak out" - even overseas - for fear of reprisals on families, he told the Commission.

Rumours gaining credence

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church made similar claims to Wanner, Moore and Sergeev in a June 25 media interview.

There are no Greek Catholic or Roman Catholic priests in the occupied territories, he said.

Russian forces are destroying or appropriating churches while driving out clergy and banning Catholic organisations, including Caritas.

Russian Orthodox and Kremlin partnership

Moore told the Commission that the Russian Orthodox Church "is not a church as we would think of one, but it's a working arm of the Kremlin".

"Prominent members of the media and even some members of Congress continue to tell Americans that the Ukrainian government persecutes Christians" said Moore.

Russia and President Vladimir Putin must be held accountable for their numerous war crimes so that they will be deterred from further attempts to use religion to inspire violence and justify repressing religious minorities.

Source

• OSV News

Last Thursday's incident marks the latest in a series of recent security breaches.

Two weeks ago, a man found to be mentally ill was arrested after ramming his car into the St Anne's entrance gate to the Vatican and driving through the small city-state.

Last August, climate activists entered the Vatican Museums and glued their hands to the base of the famed "Laocoön and His Sons" statue. The first-century sculpture is considered one of the most important ancient works in the Vatican.

The activists also hung a banner reading, "Last Generation: No gas and no carbon".

And in 2019, another man described as "psychologically disturbed" was arrested by Vatican gendarmes for climbing onto the main altar in St Peter's Basilica and tossing a candelabra onto the floor

Source

• Daily Mail
• Crux Now
• Reuters