The papal point man for charity, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, opened a soup kitchen in Fastiv, in Ukraine's Kyiv region, Dec. 23 and was heading east to Kharkiv to spend Christmas "in the city where Russian bombs fell first and the war started" on Feb. 24, 2022.

During a Dec. 20 Russian missile strike on Kyiv, Catholic St. Nicholas church, a significant architectural monument of the Ukrainian capital, suffered damage.

For Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, driving home for Christmas means taking a different route each year. In 2024, he marks his second Christmas in war-torn Ukraine.

The situation in Ukraine is very "worrisome" and could spiral out of control, said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

Pope Francis and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met for the third time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, focusing their discussion on the repatriation of Ukrainian nationals held in Russian captivity.

Lviv mourned the victims of the Sept. 4 Russian strike on the residential buildings as thousands gathered Sept. 6 for funeral services of a mother and her three daughters.

"Please, let no Christian church be abolished directly or indirectly: the churches are not to be touched," Pope Francis said about a Ukrainian law banning the Russian Orthodox Church, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Aug. 24, Ukrainian independence day.

The largest organization of religious leaders in Ukraine is backing a proposal by that nation's president -- approved by Ukrainian lawmakers Aug. 20 -- to ban the Russian Orthodox Church and its affiliates, which have openly supported Russia's decade-long war on Ukraine.

Russian forces have destroyed another Ukrainian Greek Catholic church, while a priest at a separate parish is hastening to remove sacred items ahead of an expected Russian attack.

Russian forces have driven out all Greek and Roman Catholic clergy from the occupied areas of Ukraine, said the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

A July 8 attack by Russia on a children's hospital and other civilian targets throughout Ukraine is "a sin that cries out to heaven for revenge," said the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Pope Francis prayed in thanksgiving for the release of two Ukrainian Catholic priests who were held in Russian captivity for more than 19 months, calling on Christians to pray for the release of all prisoners of war.

Two disappeared Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests seized by Russian forces from their church in Berdyansk in November 2022 are possibly in a Russian-operated labor camp in occupied Ukraine, according to a human rights information service.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, said allowing Ukraine to use NATO weapons to attack military targets in Russia would lead to "an escalation that no one will be able to control anymore."

Bishop Bryan Bayda, who leads the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada, said God guided him on where to go and whom to meet during his February visit to war-torn Ukraine.