UGCC head blames Russia for tensions between Poland and Ukraine
Shevchuk claimed that Moscow is financing radical parties across Europe in an effort to undermine solidarity between Warsaw and Kyiv.
The head of the UGCC Sviatoslav Shevchuk expressed the opinion that the Russian Federation stands behind the surges of "national egoism" in European countries. According to his statement, the Kremlin deliberately provokes enmity between peoples, which had previously been overcome through the efforts of the Catholic Church.
"Russia wants to reopen the old wounds in Europe that John Paul II tried to heal: between Germans and French, between Poles and Germans, between Ukrainians and Poles… Today it wants to divide us all again," Shevchuk said.
He also expressed confidence that Moscow directly sponsors political forces that advance radical slogans. "We know that today Russia finances all ultra-nationalist parties in Europe," the head of the Uniates emphasized. "Therefore, when someone tempts us with ideas of national egoism, ideas of radical nationalism, we know who paid for it."
As a means of countering such processes, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholics proposed using the concept of "Christian solidarity." According to him, the legacy of Pope John Paul II should become a "vaccine against Moscow's propaganda, which fuels nationalisms in the modern world."
Previously, the head of the Uniates expressed the opinion that Ukraine and Poland are divided not by the actual facts of the UPA's struggle, but by the myths surrounding it.
