The leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church expressed hope on Monday that dialogue and diplomacy will “conquer war” in Ukraine.

In a video message recorded in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Feb. 28, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk alluded to talks between representatives of Ukraine and Russia taking place in neighboring Belarus.

“We know that the alternative to war is diplomacy and dialogue. And always, at the end of war, it is necessary to sit down at the negotiating table. May dialogue and diplomacy conquer war,” he said.

Russian forces have sought to enter Kyiv, the seat of the Ukrainian government, since President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Shevchuk is issuing daily messages from Kyiv, where he is sheltering with others under the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Cathedral of the Resurrection as the Russian military closes in on the city of almost three million people.

In his message, delivered in Ukrainian and distributed by the Secretariat of the Major Archbishop in Rome, the 51-year-old major archbishop denounced the “crooked, inhumane, vicious war.”

Read more at Catholic World Report