Ukrainian Ombudsman tells UN reps that UOC “supports the war”

Ombudsman's meeting with UN representatives. Photo: t.me/dmytro_lubinetzs

On March 24, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets met with Denise Brown, Resident Coordinator of the UN system in Ukraine, and Matilda Bogner, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. A message about this appeared in the Ombudsman’s telegram channel.

The meeting discussed issues of the rights and freedoms of believers in Ukraine. Lubinets told the UN representatives that the right to freedom of opinion and religion is enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine.

In his opinion, “at present, the transition of the parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is the desire and choice of the believers themselves. They understand that the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate belongs to the Russian Federation, supports the war, the occupation of Ukrainian lands. In addition, Russia itself commits crimes against various religious denominations, shelling and destroying religious buildings, killing priests.”

As the UOJ reported, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry stressed on February 22, 2022 that "the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has consistently supported and continues to support the territorial integrity of Ukraine and calls on its faithful to pray for peace in our Ukrainian state and worldwide."

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