Ukrainian priest wounded in Russian missile attack

By Svitlana Dukhovych

Father Ihor Makar was in his car, on his way to celebrate the liturgy of the Feast of Theophany (baptism of Jesus) and perform the traditional blessing of the waters, when he was injured by a Russian drone strike.

The incident took place near Zelenivka, which is close to Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine.

Father Makar, priest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and director of Caritas in Kherson, was on January 6 with seminarians from the Drohobych seminary (in western Ukraine), when they saw a Russian drone on the road.

“We were driving behind one of our parishioners,” says the priest, “and I noticed a drone in the sky. Because of the frost, the road was very slippery and we couldn’t stop or turn around…I realized that this drone was probably targeting us.”

The explosion caused by the strike shattered the car’s windows, piercing the doors and wheels. Fortunately, the seminarians were not injured, while the priest will have to undergo surgery to remove a piece of shrapnel lodged in his leg.

Priestly vocation

Father Makar has been serving in the Kherson region since 2005.

His first parish was in Antonivka, which straddles the banks of the Dnipro River and is therefore now on the front line of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

This Eastern Rite Catholic priest lived there with his wife and four children until the start of the large-scale invasion of Russia.

During the Russian occupation of Kherson, which lasted until November 11, 2022, the priest, who was with his family in Ternopil, western Ukraine, remotely helped his parishioners and the needy who remained under occupation, sending medicine and food for soup. kitchen.

Since Kherson returned to Ukrainian control, Fr. Makar has continued to serve in the region’s two parishes and help the population in a region where attacks are carried out daily.

“Living here is really dangerous,” says the father. Makar told Vatican News last July, “but people continue to live here, and my vocation as a priest is to be with them.”

Russian attacks at Christmas

Also in Kherson, on the day when some Orthodox were celebrating Christmas Eve, Byzantine rite Catholics were celebrating Theophany and Latin rite the feast of Epiphany, when the Russian army attacked a bus in the Shumensky district.

An employee of the municipal environment department was killed and eight people were injured.

In the village of Shyroka Balka in the Kherson region, Russians launched explosives from a drone, killing a 48-year-old man who was on the street.

Throughout the Christmas period, Russia carried out attacks on Ukrainian towns and villages.

On Christmas Eve and in the early hours of December 25, Russia launched a massive attack: in total, more than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than a hundred attack drones. The main target was the country’s energy sector, but the attacks caused civilian deaths and injuries.

According to a report by the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, released on December 31, between September and November 2024, 574 civilians were killed in the country due to the war and 3,082 injured.