A Ukrainian church in Sydney has been desecrated with racial slurs in an attack the NSW government has labelled vicious and abhorrent.

Members of the Ukrainian community woke on Saturday morning to find the St Andrew’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Lidcombe covered in spray paint. Among the vandalism is a swastika symbol and the message ‘‘traitors fascists’’.

A swastika on the window of the Ukrainian church in Lidcome

Father Simon Ckuj said the church partly commemorated Ukrainians who fought against Nazism in World War Two.‘‘This act completely defiles the memory of those who died fighting fascism,’’ the parish priest said on Saturday.

Despite the offensive crime, the church says it will pray for the graffiti artists at a Sunday morning service.