- The Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lipivka sheltered about 100 residents during the 2022 Russian occupation.
- The church, which has more than 300 years of history, had construction halted during the 2022 invasion but has since resumed.
- Most Ukrainians identify themselves as Orthodox Christians, with the Lyivka Church affiliated with the Independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
This Orthodox Easter season, an extraordinary new church is bringing spiritual comfort to war-weary residents Ukrainian village Of Lvivka. Two years ago, it also provided physical shelter from the horrors outside.
About 100 residents took refuge in the basement chapel of the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary Russian soldier The village was captured in March 2022 as they closed in on Ukraine’s capital, 40 miles east of Kiev.
“The battle took place here,” said the Rev. Hennadiy Kharkivsky. He pointed to the churchyard, where a memorial stone stands in memory of six Ukrainian soldiers killed in the Battle of Lipivka.
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“They got wounded and then the Russians came and shot everybody and finished them off,” he said.
Christian Orthodox worshipers exit the chapel basement after attending a service at the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lipivka, near Lviv, Ukraine, on April 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
The two-week Russian occupation devastated the village and the church – a modern replacement of an older structure – was damaged while still under construction. It is one of 129 war-damaged Ukrainian religious sites recorded by UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization.
“It’s solid concrete,” the priest said. “But it was easily pierced” by Russian shells, leaving holes in the church and shrapnel marks on the inside wall. At the bottom of the basement staircase, a black scorch mark shows where the grenade was thrown.
But within a few weeks, workers began repairing the damage and dismantling the red-domed concrete building that towers over the village, which contained scarred and damaged buildings, fruit trees and fields that the Russians had destroyed with landmines. Was filled with.
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For many of the people involved – including a determined priest, a wealthy philanthropist, a renowned artist and a team of craftsmen – the reconstruction of this church plays a role in Ukraine’s struggle for culture, identity and its survival. The building, a wonderful blend of ancient and modern, reflects a country that is determined to express its soul even in times of war.
The dull exterior of the building hides the splendor inside. The vibrant red, blue, orange and gold panels decorating the walls and ceiling are the work of Anatoly Krivolap, an artist whose bold, modernist images of saints and angels make this church unique in Ukraine.
Krivolap, 77, whose abstract paintings sell for thousands of dollars at auction, said he wanted to avoid the serious-looking symbolism he saw in many Orthodox churches.
“I feel like going to church to meet God should be a celebration,” he said.
There has been a church at this location for more than 300 years. An old building was destroyed by shelling during World War II. The small wooden church that replaced it came into more weekday use during the Soviet era, when religion was suppressed.
Kharkivsky reopened the parish in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and with funding from Bohdan Batrukh, a Ukrainian film producer and distributor, began to rebuild the church spiritually and physically.
Work halted when Russian troops launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Moscow’s forces reached the borders of Kiev before being driven back. By the beginning of April Lyivka was liberated.
Since then, fighting has been concentrated in the east and south of Ukraine, although airstrikes with rockets, missiles and drones remain a persistent threat throughout the country.
By May 2022, workers had resumed work on the church. It is moving slowly. Millions of Ukrainians fled the country when the war broke out, including builders and craftsmen. Hundreds of thousands of other people have joined the army.
Inside the church, a tower of wooden scaffolding rises to the dome, where a red and gold image of Jesus Christ raises his hands in blessing
For now, services take place in the small basement, where a priest dressed in white and gold robes recently conducted a service for a few dozen parishioners as the smell of incense wafted from the candle-lit room.
He is expecting a big crowd on the occasion of Easter which falls on Sunday. Eastern Orthodox Christians generally celebrate Easter later than the Catholic and Protestant churches, because they use a different method of calculating the date of the holy day that marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Most Ukrainians identify themselves as Orthodox Christians, although the church is divided. Many belong to the Independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, with which the Lyivka Church is affiliated. The rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church was loyal to the patriarch in Moscow until it seceded from Russia after the 2022 invasion and is viewed with suspicion by many Ukrainians.
Kharkivsky says the size of his congregation has remained stable, even though the village’s population has declined dramatically since the war began. He says that in difficult times people turn to religion.
“As people say: ‘Air raid warning – go to God,'” the priest said sarcastically.
Liudmila Havrilyuk, who has a summer home in Lipivka, retreated to the village and its church before the fighting stopped. When Russia invaded, she fled to Poland with her 16- and 18-year-old daughters. But within a few weeks she was back in her favorite village, which was still surrounded by Russians.
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The family huddled in their home, cooking on wood, drawing water from the well, sometimes under a Russian fire. Hawrilyuk said he held hands and prayed when he saw the Russian helicopters.
“Not prayers in a strict sequence, like in the book,” he said. “It was from my heart, from my soul, what do we do? How do I save myself and especially my daughters?”
She regularly attends the church in Lipivka and says, “It’s a place where you can take refuge, mentally, within yourself.”
As Ukraine celebrates its third Easter at war, church About to be completed. Only a few interior panels of Krivolap remain to be installed. He said the rock holes would be left unrepaired as a reminder to future generations.
“(This is) so that they know what kind of ‘brothers’ we have, that these are just fascists,” he said, referring to the Russians.
“We are Orthodox just like them, but destroying churches is inhumane.”
