Viktor Yelensky: Religious freedom in Ukraine is an example of religious freedom for the whole world

The head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, Viktor Yelenskyy, said at a meeting at the Ukrainian Media Center on the occasion of World Religion Day that today religious freedom in Ukraine is not a slogan, it is embodied in life and is an unprecedented example of cooperation between various religious organizations for the modern world. This is stated on the website of the SSRF.

Yelensky added that when Ukraine started celebrating World Religion Day, «it was hard to imagine that our compatriots in the occupied territories would suffer persecution. That hundreds of churches would be destroyed there, priests and believers would be killed, members of religious communities would be imprisoned for long terms. Baptists, Pentecostals, entire communities will be forced to become refugees».

The head of SSRF complained that against the bill 8371 «an information campaign is directed as if it were a law banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church».

Yelensky assured that «this law is not discriminatory, it does not prohibit religion, but it is aimed at protection from the influence of the administrative center of the religious organization of the aggressor state. If this connection is interrupted, the UOC will continue its activities in Ukraine, if not, the state authorities will seek to terminate its existence through the court».