The Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations is calling on NATO, the UN, the European Union, the OSCE and the Council of Europe to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine, the council said in a statement released on Tuesday.

"Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale military invasion of the sovereign territory of Ukraine, we are seeing firsthand how Russian invaders resort to the most cynical and prohibited by international humanitarian law methods of warfare. In fact, Russia is waging a war against the civilian population of Ukraine, as it purposefully fires ballistic missiles, including from the territory of Belarus, and conducts air raids at residential areas, schools, kindergartens, maternity hospitals, hospitals, and critical infrastructure facilities that are necessary to ensure the life of the civilian population, sometimes with the use of prohibited cluster and vacuum ammunition," the statement reads.

It clarifies that blatant examples of unjustified cruelty and unrestrained aggression of Russian invaders are the shelling of humanitarian corridors, evacuation buses and even ambulances.

"The disdainful attitude of the Russian leadership towards human life, which we see in regard to Russian soldiers who were thrown into the jaws of the war of conquest, is now manifested in relation to the civilian population of Ukraine, which is forced to escape from Russian missiles and occupiers, migrating to safer regions of our country and to neighboring states of the European Union," the Council said.

They add that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is accompanied not only by shelling and bombing of civilian infrastructure and residential buildings, but also churches.

"From various fronts of the Russian invasion, there are reports of shelling of churches, even those where refugees have been sheltering," clergy emphasize.

According to them, even the largest spiritual shrine of Ukraine, the Cathedral of St. Sophia of Kyiv, was under the threat of attack.

"With this in mind, the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations once again calls on NATO, as a security partner of Ukraine, the UN, the European Union, the OSCE and the Council of Europe to take urgent measures to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine and to provide the Armed Forces of Ukraine with modern air defense equipment, including fighter planes, in order to protect our greatest value – human lives and civilian infrastructure – from barbaric shelling and bombing by Russian invaders," the Council said.