MFA to cooperate with the churches in the matter of restoring religious freedom in the occupied territories

The Public Council under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for cooperation with religious organizations will promote the commemoration of the victims of the Holodomor of 1932-1933, release of Ukrainian political prisoners and support the development of military chaplaincy.

Such main results of the 10th meeting, which took place on February 12 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine with the participation of Deputy Minister Vasyl Bodnar, reports the Institute of Religious Freedom.

In particular, the members of the Public Council will take further measures that would facilitate the release of Ukrainian citizens illegally held by the Russian authorities in Russia and in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. By joint effort, they will inform the international community about the persecution of believers in temporarily uncontrolled Ukrainian authorities in separate areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

The Foreign Ministry expressed support for the project presented by Fr Lubomir Yavorsky (UGCC) t on the development of military chaplaincy in Ukraine and expressed readiness to contribute to the legislative regulation of the chaplaincy ministry.

The Public Council will continue to take measures to promote the commemoration in foreign countries of Ukrainian Holodomor victims of 1932-1933.

In particular, the participants of the meeting supported the initiative of the Secretary of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC, Bishop Bohdan Dziurah, for the provision of symbolic assistance to the most hunger-bitten countries in Africa and Asia. Having survived the tragedy deliberate destruction of the Ukrainian peasantry as the world's totalitarian regime imposed silence facts of mass destruction, hunger, Ukraine commemorates Holodomor victims, providing assistance to the people of other countries that suffer from hunger. “Not cry but act! Indifference kills!”- Under this slogan, it is planned to involve in the campaign not only the official structures but also civil society and all conscious citizens in Ukraine and Ukrainians abroad.

The Public Council supported an important initiative - proclaiming 2018 the year of God's Word in Ukraine, involving not only the mass reading of Scripture, but also measures to implement God's commandments into practice.

The meeting ended with the discussion of the question of rotation of the Chair of the Public Council under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for cooperation with religious organizations, which elected a representative of the UGCC, Archpriest Ihor Onyschuk.