The Catholic Church in Ukraine will face extermination if the Russian invasion is successful, leading Ukrainian Catholic bishops said this week.

The bishops spoke to media after a panel discussion titled “Faith Under Fire in Russia’s War on Ukraine” hosted by the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., on Monday.

Though Ukraine is majority Eastern Orthodox, there are nearly 5 million Catholics in the country. The bishops said that the Church in Ukraine could be facing severe repression and may once again be forced underground as in the days of the Soviet Union.

Archbishop Borys Gudziak, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, told CNA that there “are many, many Catholics that are dying every day” and that there is a “danger for Catholics in particular in Ukraine.”

Under Russian occupation, Gudziak said that the Church “is eliminated as a visible body.”

“If the repression lasts a long time,” he added, “basically the Church is extinguished.”