Despite the appeals, Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine and launched a missile strike that killed six people, including a mother and her 3-month-old baby, in Odesa April 23.
Pope calls for peace, end to ‘barbarity of war’ in Ukraine
European church leaders ask Russian patriarch to support Easter truce
Cardinal Hollerich, president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, and other European religious leaders have echoed Pope Francis’ appeal for an Easter cease-fire in Ukraine.