Archbishop Klyment of the Crimean Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine thanked US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for supporting the Ukrainian Church in annexed Crimea.
Archbishop Klyment of the Crimean Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine thanked US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for supporting the Ukrainian Church in annexed Crimea.
"I had the opportunity to talk with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. This is our second meeting. The first one took place last summer in Washington, during an international conference on religious freedom rights when the Secretary of state allocated 15 minutes for me to report on the situation in Crimea. And now, during a short meeting, I thanked the Secretary of State for the great help that the United States is providing to the Ukrainians of Crimea. The help is that we are supported by the US government at all events that take place in the world, the problem of the existence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (OCU) in Crimea is always voiced. The Secretary of state keeps this problem under his personal control, Archbishop Klyment said, according to Radio Liberty.
He told the US Secretary of State that religious freedom and the right to worship are being violated in Crimea.
According to him, this applies to political prisoners in Russian prisons, in the Simferopol jail, who are denied meetings with priests.
"First of all, this concerns our political prisoner Oleg Prikhodko, because you know from the messages given by the lawyer that the FSB refuses me permission to visit Prikhodko,” Archbishop Klyment added.
He added that "such meetings strengthen our Orthodox Church in Crimea.”
Earlier that day, Metropolitan Epifaniy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine spoke about the oppression of the OCU in Russian-annexed Crimea during a meeting with us Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the latter’s visit to Ukraine.