The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has stated that dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church is inevitable

Ihor Rantsia, the hierarch of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) in France, the Benelux countries, and Switzerland, emphasized the need to establish contacts with communities of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in Western Europe. The UGCC representative described such dialogue as an inevitable and spiritually justified process.

In his address, Rantsya noted that refusing to engage in dialogue leads to isolation and stagnation. “When we break off dialogue, we isolate ourselves and die,” he stated, calling for the establishment of informal ties between communities. According to the priest, the divine nature is, by its very essence, dialogical, which makes contact between believers of different traditions a fundamental necessity.

Nevertheless, the representative of the UGCC highlighted fundamental difficulties in current relations. He identified justice as the primary condition for building sincere dialogue; without it, he said, constructive interaction is impossible. Although the Russian Orthodox Church does not currently recognize the UGCC, the bishop called on church leadership to consider transforming the idea of dialogue into a full-fledged project.

As a reminder, earlier, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, issued a statement in which he called the current escalation in relations between Poland and Ukraine a consequence of a large-scale “ideological special operation” by Russia. In his view, the rhetoric of Polish politicians making claims against the Ukrainian side largely echoes the narratives used during the Soviet era.