Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk has issued one of his starkest warnings of the war, condemning what he called a destructive network of corruption uncovered within Ukraine’s energy sector.
In his weekly video message, delivered in the 196th week of the Russian invasion, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church said the revelations had caused “anguish” across the country as investigators alleged that officials siphoned off about $100 million from state-owned energy companies.
“Our law enforcement agencies have uncovered a criminal corruption scheme that was destroying Ukraine’s energy system,” he said. “We share the pain of our society and, fulfilling the prophetic role of the Church, we consistently denounce and condemn the phenomenon we call corruption.”
His remarks came amid sustained military pressure, with heavy fighting around Pokrovsk and renewed Russian attempts to push further into Ukrainian territory.
The Major Archbishop praised the “heroic resistance” of Ukrainian troops holding the line both in the east and near Zaporizhzhia, but said the domestic scandal had deepened the nation’s distress at a time when many households already struggle with shortages of heat and electricity. Corruption in wartime, he said, amounted to an assault on Ukraine’s survival, describing it as “a gross act of sabotage”.
He stressed that the exposure of the scheme by Ukrainian authorities was a sign of institutional resolve. He called it “encouraging” that state bodies were confronting the problem directly and urged continuing vigilance. “We hope that the Ukrainian state, our government, will consistently fight and stop this phenomenon,” he said.
He added that Ukrainians themselves, through civil society, parish life and public engagement, were shaping “the necessary public opinion, which has declared zero tolerance for any manifestations of this evil — moral, social, economic — in our society”. Corruption, he insisted, was not only a moral wrong but “a crime against Ukraine”.
