Priests of Russian Orthodox Church: Russian Language in Ukraine Should be Official

Priests of the Russian Orthodox Church firmly defend the general position of the Russian Church that the Russian language should be granted official status in Ukraine.

“The Russian language in Ukraine should enjoy the official status and, moreover, it should regain its importance of the 'pre-schism' period. Equalizing its rights with English diminishes the importance of the Russian language in the life of the Ukrainian society and Ukrainian culture,” stressed a teacher of the Moscow Spiritual Academy and Seminary, Hieromonach Tikhon (Zimin).

He also said that Russia should “develop a large program to support the Russian language in Ukraine.”

Priest Heorhii Zavershynskyi, the head of the Communication Service of the Department of External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, believes that preference should always be given to peaceful means of dialogue. "Final settlement of this matter is the right of political power of these countries. The church cannot give advice to our current government to put or not put economic pressure on these countries to repair the situation in favor of Russia. We can only empathize with the difficulties faced by representatives of the Russian diaspora,” he noted.

As RISU reported, this position is typical for the Russian Orthodox Church and is supported by its head, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. In his address at the 4th Assembly of the “Russian World” in the beginning of November in Moscow, he stressed the special role of the Russian Church in the work of spreading and preserving the Russian language.