U.S. State Department hails creation of new church structure in Ukraine

U.S. State Department building in Washington. Photo: open sources

The United States believes that religious freedom should not be impeded by outside interference, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino said on December 17, TASS reported.

“The establishment of this Church was a historic event for Ukraine. The United States continues to strongly support Ukraine and believes that religious freedom must not be impeded by outside interference. Religious freedom extends to all Ukrainians, including those who choose to join or not to join the new Orthodox Church,” Palladino said.

On behalf of the United States, he congratulated OCU head “Metropolitan” Epifaniy on his election.

As the UOJ reported, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker said that the United States was not involved in resolving religious issues in Ukraine and that such matters should be handled by the Ecumenical Patriarch and his Synod. He added that the United States was concerned whenever religious freedom was restricted by an outside force and would always support believers.

Earlier, legal experts Oleksiy Starodubov, head of the Rule of Law NGO, and Maksym Mohylnytskyi, head of the Mohylnytskyi and Partners law firm, said that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had violated the constitutional rights of more than 10 million Ukrainian believers by initiating the granting of the Tomos and the unification of the Churches.

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