Religious communities have stayed behind in the Ukrainian warzone to continue working with the people they serve, despite the increasing risks from indiscriminate shelling and gunfire.

Magda Kaczmarek, Project Manager of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) for Ukraine, is in constant touch with the foundation’s long-term partners.

Among others, she is in close contact with several orders of nuns in the war area. “The sisters are full of fear and anxiety, but they also feel upheld by prayer and by a worldwide wave of solidarity,” she reports.

Kaczmarek speaks movingly of a conversation with a nun from a convent in northern Ukraine. For security reasons neither the nun’s name, nor the location can be revealed, but media reports confirm there is fierce fighting in this town. Several times during the night the sisters have had to take refuge in the basement; they sleep therefore in their habits and veils, so that they can run out of their rooms at any time. At night the whole convent is kept in darkness, so as not to attract attacks.