AMERICAN AMBASSADOR ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM PROMISES UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT SUPPORT IN STRUGGLE FOR AUTOCEPHALY
Portal-Credo.ru, 12 September 2018
On 11 September, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko received in Kiev the ambassador of the United States of America with special assignments on matters of international religious freedom, Samuel Brownback, the official website of the head of the Ukrainian state reports.
The president emphasized that religious liberty is an inseparable part of our Ukrainian identity. "We are proud that we have a worthy condition of religious liberty in Ukraine, which is guaranteed by the Ukrainian constitution and the Ukrainian law on freedom of conscience and religious organizations, and also a traditionally high level of tolerance that prevails in Ukrainian society," Petro Poroshenko noted.
President Poroshenko acquainted Ambassador Brownback with the steps that are being taken on the path to the creation of a Ukrainian autocephalous Orthodox church. The president thanked the American side for active support of Ukraine in this process.
The president drew the ambassador's attention to numerous evidences of egregious violations of human rights and freedoms, particularly religious freedom, in the territories occupied by Russia. The interlocutors emphasized the necessity of a stern response to systematic persecutions in the Donbass and Crimea of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and representatives of other religious confessions.
In his turn, Ambassador Brownback gave assurances that the United States in the future will support Ukraine in the struggle for restoration of sovereignty and territorial integrity and for the right to have a united Ukrainian autocephalous Orthodox church. (tr. by PDS, posted 12 September 2018)
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