Special Representative of the United States Department of State for Ukraine: US does not participate in resolving religious issues in Ukraine

Special Representative of the United States Department of State for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, in an interview with the Echo of Moscow, commenting on the issue of providing autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, said that the United States does not participate in solving religious issues in Ukraine. This is reported by UNN.

“The United States is a secular state; we are not a religious structure. Therefore, we do not participate in solving religious issues in Ukraine,” Volker said.

According to him, the United States is based on the principle of freedom of religion and consists of representatives of all denominations.

“And in this case, a situation has arisen when many believers, many Ukrainian citizens believe that they are denied their own interpretation of their religion, the affirmation of their own path to God and self-actualization as believers, and we support the right of everyone to have their own convictions and so, again, we are worried about a situation where some kind of external power limits the exercise of freedom of religion, and we will always be on the side of the support of the faithful themselves,” said the US special envoy.

In his opinion, the issue of granting autocephaly to the UOC can be considered as political only by the Russian side.

“I believe that this issue is regarded as political because Russia makes it a political issue, because it does not want Ukraine to have an independent Church. It is a very political decision that comes from the Russian side,” Volker said.

He added that these issues should be considered, in particular, by the Ecumenical Patriarch and his Synod, who deal with religious issues.

As RISU reported earlier, on September 7, the Ecumenical Patriarchate appointed two exarchs in Kyiv to prepare for the process of providing an oil extraction.

The Russian Orthodox Church called this appointment “an invasion into its canonical territory” and threatened to break the Eucharistic communication.

On September 14, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to cease participation in structures under the rule of the Constantinople Patriarchate and commemorate the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew during the Divine Services.

On the same day, the head of the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate, Onufriy, reporting to the participants of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, said that the priests of his Church would not meet exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Ukraine because they came here without their blessing.

On September 17, exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at a meeting with the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, in Kyiv stated that the process of granting autocephaly of the UOC is a “resolved issue”.