Ukrainian priest Bohdan Heleta shared his experience as a prisoner of war in Russia, leaving a message of faith and hope amid trials.
Photo: Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (ugcc.ua)
Newsroom (06/09/2024 19:20, Gaudium Press) On November 16, 2022, the Russian military kidnapped two priests, Father Bohdan Heleta and Father Ivan Levytsky. Fr. Heleta was arrested inside the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They were taken to a building occupied by the Berdiansk District Police Department, where they were illegally deprived of their liberty in a temporary detention center.
In December 2022, the “head of the 3rd Investigative Department of the United Forces of the Russian Federation”, Denis Shekhovets, in prior conspiracy with the “deputy military prosecutor”, Yevgeny Svistunov, and the “garrison military prosecutor”, Alexander Korneev, drew up documents containing false information. According to these documents, the priests allegedly stored ammunition and explosives and collaborated with the Ukrainian special services, being illegally designated as prisoners of war.
Between March and August 2023, the priests were taken to Berdyansk Correctional Colony No. 77 (a Russian-occupied Ukrainian city), spent two days in an unknown cellar in Melitopol, and then transferred to Kalinin Correctional Colony in the Donetsk region, where they were held until the day of their release. The priests did not receive proper medical care, especially Fr. Heleta, who suffers from diabetes.
At the end of June 2024, Fr. Heleta was released as part of a prisoner exchange along with Fr. Ivan Levytsky “It was a big surprise,” the cleric said of his release. They didn’t expect it, they thought they would be transferred somewhere further away from Russia, to the interior, somewhere in Siberia.
Interview with Fr. Bohdan Heleta
Ukrainian priest Bohdan Heleta shared his experience as a prisoner of war in Russia, highlighting the crucial role of prayer in his survival. In an interview with an ecclesiastical television station, the Redemptorist priest, who belongs to the Greek-Catholic Church united to Rome, revealed that prayer, both his own and that of the faithful, sustained him in times of distress.
“I was put in solitary confinement with a music speaker that played Soviet songs all day long. Then I understood how a person goes mad and why they commit suicide – I understood what suicide is. And, of course, the Lord God helps, He gives strength through prayer. God, Jesus Christ, Mary, and the angels were there. Prayer was salvation. I felt the prayer of the Church, that so many people were praying for us.”
The prisoners were subjected to physical torture, including electric shocks, and coercion to memorize the lyrics of the Russian national anthem, under threat of punishment if they did not. The priests had their beards and hair shaved off so that they could no longer be identified as priests among the other prisoners.
“In Berdyansk, we didn’t suffer any physical violence. In Horlivka, on the other hand, we were mistreated almost daily and lived in terrible conditions. Fr. Ivan suffered so many beatings that he fainted twice.”
Faced with this, how did he find the strength to resist both physically and spiritually? “It was very simple for me: I remembered Jesus Christ, His cross, and suffering, so I found strength and grace amid my suffering. Whenever I was taken somewhere, I prepared myself inwardly by praying and asking God for strength. I didn’t know if I would survive or not… It seems to me that if this situation had persisted for another year, or perhaps even less, I would have succumbed physically.” And then he added: “I would like to appeal to families, mothers, wives who have children, fathers or other loved ones in captivity: don’t lose hope, pray, turn to God and everything will be fine”.
Heleta reported that it was not possible to celebrate Mass, although they knew that he and Levitsky were clerics. As they belonged to the Greek Catholic Church, they were treated by the Russian soldiers as members of a “sect” that had broken away from Orthodoxy. But they had a Bible in Russian, which they read secretly at morning prayer meetings.
“We had the opportunity to meet many people, who shared their experiences with us and sought mental and spiritual comfort. There were confessions.
However, he was impressed by people’s ability to endure torture without God, without prayer. And he came to the conclusion that “even if a person believes in something, they hope for something. They had hope, some in their relatives, others were dominated by hatred…”
At the end of the interview, Fr. Heleta left a message:
“I wish to appeal to everyone not to lose hope. If someone is sad, in doubt, in some of life’s tragic situations, let them never lose hope! Try to turn to the Lord. Try to give yourself and this situation to Him so that He can be in your life, in your heart. He is always at work and always waiting for us to say yes to him. Pray, turn to God, and change yourself and the world around you!
With information from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (ugcc.ua)
Compiled by Dominic Joseph
