UOJ journalists freed after letters to Vance, Young Republican leader says

JD Vance speaking in the U.S. Senate. Screenshot: Vance's YouTube channel

Catherine Whiteford, co-chair of the National Federation of Young Republicans, said journalists arrested in Ukraine for reporting on seizures of Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) properties were released after she delivered their letters to JD Vance. She recounted the events in an interview with the American television network ONNJ (On New Jersey).

According to Whiteford, she was approached by Ukrainian journalists, most of whom had already been forced to leave the country because of restrictions on press freedom and religious liberty. They knew she was Orthodox and held a leadership position in a major national Republican organization.

“They asked me, ‘Hey, is there any way that you can get handwritten letters that our fellow journalists who were put in jail by the Ukrainian government for reporting about church seizures?'” Whiteford recalled.

Vance, then a U.S. senator, had spoken out in the Senate against legislation targeting the UOC.

“I was actually able to hand those letters to him in person, and they were released about 3 months later back in 2024,” Whiteford said.

Whiteford said she was encouraged that Vance, now the U.S. vice president, was aware of religious freedom concerns in Ukraine. She expressed hope that any peace agreement would include guarantees of religious liberty for Ukrainians.

In the same interview, Whiteford likened the deployment of UOC priests to front-line combat roles to “death by cop,” arguing that their deaths could then be blamed on Russian forces.

In April 2024, Vance delivered a speech condemning the Ukrainian government for “attacking traditional Christian communities.”

Earlier, the UOJ reported that on September 29, 2025, Whiteford described the lawsuit against the UOC as “state persecution.” Her remarks came ahead of the first hearing in a case seeking to ban the Church and dissolve its central administration and the entire Kyiv Metropolia.

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