Archbishop Klyment (Kushch) of Simferopol and Crimea, head of the Crimean diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate, published his appeal to the Russian president on July 5 on the release of Ukrainian political prisoners in the territory of the Russian Federation, “Religion in Ukraine” reports.
Archbishop Klyment (Kushch) of Simferopol and Crimea, head of the Crimean diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate, published his appeal to the Russian president on July 5 on the release of Ukrainian political prisoners in the territory of the Russian Federation, “Religion in Ukraine” reports.
In the appeal written in Russian, the archbishop comments on the starvation of Oleg Sentsov and Vladimir Baluch, which “fills me with horror.”
“If you have in your heart the fear of God, Love and Compassion, even towards the enemy,” Love your enemies ... "(Matthew 5:44), I ask you to show the Act of Mercy to Oleg Sentsov, Vladimir Baluch and other citizens of Ukraine convicted on national grounds for their convictions, to release them and return them to their homeland in Ukraine,” the letter reads.
At the same time, the archbishop of the UOC-KP said: “I understand all the consequences for this request. And I am ready to share responsibility with those for whom I ask.”
This appeal was another in a series of similar letters from the Crimean Archbishop of the UOC-KP to Russian and international political and church leaders in order to influence the release of Ukrainian political prisoners in prisons of the Russian Federation.