UA Baptist leader to US audience: There is no religious persecution in Ukraine
Valeriy Antoniuk, head of the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists, described reports of religious persecution in Ukraine as Russian propaganda, Slavic Sacramento reports.
Antoniuk spoke at Regeneration Church in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, during a meeting with Ukrainian Christians. He urged the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States to step up its support for Ukraine, meet with U.S. officials and counter claims that believers’ rights are being violated.
“No matter how much falsehood is spread, no matter how much propaganda there is, no matter how much people today talk about and distort everything happening in Ukraine – and we hear it even from government officials here and in Europe: ‘There is religious persecution in Ukraine,’” Antoniuk said. “I don’t know of any country with more democracy and freedom than Ukraine today.”
Antoniuk said that, in his view, the spread of such claims was part of Russia’s efforts against Ukraine. He described the situation as a spiritual struggle and urged believers in the United States to continue their public and political advocacy for Ukraine and further develop the American-Ukrainian Christian Alliance. “Don’t forget this, and don’t leave the battlefield,” the Baptist leader urged.
Earlier, the UOJ reported that a Baptist pastor received a prison sentence for refusing mobilization.
