Ukrainian NGO “Olenivka Community” sends protest letters to the Vatican over the awarding of the Russian ambassador in Poland

On August 22, 2025, the public organization “Olenivka Community,” which unites families of Ukrainian servicemen wounded and killed as a result of the mass execution in Olenivka, announced that it had sent letters of protest to Vatican representatives in Ukraine and Poland. This was reported by Upmp.news, citing the NGO.

The reason was the decision of the Apostolic Nuncio in Poland, Archbishop Antonio Guido Filipazzi, who on August 18, 2025, presented a commemorative award to the Russian ambassador to Poland, Sergey Andreev, as dean of the diplomatic corps. This step provoked outrage among the families of Ukrainian prisoners of war executed in Russian captivity.

In their letters, representatives of the NGO stressed that such an act appears to be a symbolic legitimization of the aggressor state responsible for mass war crimes, including the terrorist attack in Olenivka in July 2022. According to official data, about 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed and more than a hundred injured as a result of the explosion in Colony No. 120.

“We ask Vatican representatives to explain the awarding of the ambassador of a state that executed our loved ones,” the appeal reads.

It should be recalled that in April 2024, representatives of the “Olenivka Community” met with the Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas. During the meeting, they handed over to the Holy See the lists of victims and all available data on the mass execution. The Nuncio then expressed solidarity and prayed for the severely wounded prisoners.

The families of the victims believe that awarding the Russian diplomat is an unacceptable step, contradicting the moral principles of the Catholic Church and devaluing the suffering of Ukrainian families. The NGO calls on the Holy See to provide a public explanation and to clearly condemn Russia’s actions, including the mass killing of prisoners of war in Olenivka.