Two years since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, fighting is still going on causing new victims and new destruction. We gathered in prayer on this sad anniversary in the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere on Friday 23 February at 8pm, to invoke the gift of peace in Ukraine.

Let us not forget the great suffering millions of Ukrainians have been experiencing, a situation that is deteriorating day by day. Over five million internally displaced people are estimated while humanitarian aid is dwindling.

Sant'Egidio has been present in the country for thirty years with Communities of Ukrainians. Even though they share suffering, fears, and hardships of the entire population, they have set up an extensive network of humanitarian assistance. In two years about 370,000 people have been reached even in the southern and eastern regions most affected by the war actions. All this has been made possible thanks to a chain of solidarity from Italy and other European countries that cannot be interrupted as long as the conflict lasts.

A total of 127 loads of humanitarian aid have so far arrived from Italy and various European countries in the coordination centre of Sant'Egidio's humanitarian initiatives in Lviv, amounting to 2,000 tonnes, a total value of over 23 million euro. Food, clothing, blankets, personal hygiene products, but also medicines and medical supplies. Sant'Egidio has sent medicines, including life-saving ones, from Lviv to 209 health facilities, 90 local administrations, 54 institutes for children, the elderly and the disabled even in the most remote areas of the country. An estimated two million people have benefited from these health supplies.

Following the missile attack on Lviv on 15 February, Sant'Egidio was immediately on-site and helped those left homeless

Almost two years of war, this nightmare shows no sign of abatement. Lviv, already hard hit by the conflict, was again targeted by rocket attacks on 15 February. Fires and destruction ravaged the city once again.

The situation in Ukraine remains dramatic: devastated cities, destroyed infrastructure, struggling economy and people exhausted by an endless grief.

Yet hope endures with solidarity. The people of the Community of Sant'Egidio keep bringing concrete aid to those affected by the war. Immediately after the attacks in Lviv, volunteers went to the disaster site to distribute food, water, basic necessities, medicine and to offer psychological support and comfort to those who have lost everything.