President met with United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom

President Petro Poroshenko met with United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback who is on a working visit to Ukraine. It was reported by the website of the President of Ukraine.

The Head of State stressed that religious freedom was an integral part of our Ukrainian identity.

"We are proud that we have a decent situation of religious freedom in Ukraine guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations, as well as the traditionally high level of tolerance that prevails in the Ukrainian society," Petro Poroshenko said.

President Poroshenko made Ambassodor Brownbeck acquainted with the measures taken to establish the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. The Head of State thanked the American party for an active support in this process.

The President drew the Ambassador's attention to the numerous occasions of horrific violation of human rights and freedoms, in particular religious freedom, in the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia. The interlocutors stressed the need for a rigorous response to the systematic persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, representatives of other faiths in the occupied Donbas and Crimea.

In turn, Ambassador Brownback assured that the United States would further support Ukraine in its struggle for the restoration of sovereignty and territorial integrity and the right to have the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.