Government and AUCCRO discuss ways to “cooperate even more effectively”

The meeting took place at Kyiv’s “Temple of Peace.” Photo: DESS

On May 22, 2025, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Olena Kovalska and Head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) Viktor Yelensky met with members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) at the “Temple of Peace” in Kyiv.

According to rhe DESS’s press service, the meeting focused on discussing further ways of cooperation between the state and religious organizations.

“This meeting was a continuation of discussions and a specification of the actions mentioned back in April during the meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky,” the statement said. “They discussed how the state and churches could cooperate even more effectively.”

Olena Kovalska and religious leaders also discussed plans for holding a “National Prayer Breakfast.”

Viktor Yelensky gave an update on the implementation of the Cabinet resolution regarding exemption of clergy from military mobilization.

As previously reported by the UOJ, DESS had earlier been unable to say when the exemption process for clergy would begin.

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