The State Ethnopolitics Committee said there was a shortage of chaplains on the frontline

The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience stated that there is a lack of military chaplains in the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The institution reports that despite the law on chaplaincy in force in Ukraine, representatives of religious denominations are in no hurry to take up this specific position, which is why there is an obvious shortage in the units. This was reported by Ukrinform.

“Now all the positions of military chaplains are not filled. That is, there is still a shortage. And if you look at the law on the service of military chaplains, there is a lower limit on the number of chaplains, but no higher one. This does not mean that the number of chaplains that is currently defined is enough, and even if all religious organizations provide a sufficient number of chaplains and all of them take their positions, it will be enough. Perhaps the military will say that they need more,” – the State Service notes.

Earlier, the head of the Department for Religious Affairs of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, Viacheslav Horshkov, said that no clergyman of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a current chaplain in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The official added that this situation has arisen because of the laws that prohibit UOC priests from serving as chaplains in the Armed Forces.