With the blessing of Metropolitan Hilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol, humanitarian aid was delivered from Russia to the Holy Dormition St. Nicholas and St. Basil Monastery in the Donetsk diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (the village of Nikolskoye, Volnovakha district).

The St. Nicholas and St. Basil Monastery is now home to 230 people. They are the monks of the St. Basil’s monastery and nuns of St. Nicholas convent, as well as residents of the monastery almshouse for the infirm and the elderly. Besides, there are more than two hundred refugees: people from the neighboring villages, among them bedridden patients and children.

The humanitarian group of the Russian veteran organization “Combat Brotherhood” brought food products, baby food, hygiene items, and canisters of diesel fuel for the electric generator, which provides electricity for life support equipment used to sustain seriously ill people living there.

The monastery also received medicines and bread from the Donetsk diocese, because its own bakery has been destroyed.

The monastery has been subject to daily heavy shelling from the Ukrainian side. The refugees told the volunteers that people are afraid to go outside because the Ukrainian military starts shooting as soon as they see any kind of motion. A week ago, during the shelling, a woman was killed while she was running from the church to the pilgrimage center. Children say that they have not been in the open air for more than a week — they have not seen the sun. On the day that the humanitarian group arrived, a nun’s cell was completely destroyed by mortar shelling.

Now that the delivery of humanitarian aid to the monastery has been made difficult due to constant shelling, the safe evacuation of children and the sick is impossible. Nevertheless, the prayer life in the monastery continues. The divine services continue to be celebrated. The monks and nuns, and their wards and refugees hiding in the monastery, live in hope for the restoration of peace.