UGCC Cleric Calls Donbas a “Holy Place for All of Ukraine”

A Greek Catholic cleric from Kramatorsk, Vasyl Ivaniuk, recently claimed in an interview that Donbas holds sacred significance for the entire country. Originally from Lviv region, the UGCC representative insisted that Donetsk and Luhansk are “the keys to Ukraine,” while Kramatorsk is “the outpost of the entire state.” He made these remarks in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.

Ivaniuk recalled how the “implanting” of the UGCC in Kramatorsk began: “When I came to Donbas in the early 1990s, the local authorities were not very aware of who we were. At that time, they had little contact with the Moscow Patriarchate. They were old communists, collective farm heads, and so on. They tried not to interfere in church matters. We could go to a collective farm, say that we needed help with bricks or timber, and they always helped us. They asked for nothing in return. We built churches mostly with the help of their crews.”

“For Ukrainians, the holy land is Donbas, because it is soaked with the blood of our people. We do not even have the right to walk on it in shoes – we should take them off,” the UGCC cleric said.

Earlier, it was reported that Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov met with UGCC representatives, including Borys Gudziak, head of the Philadelphia Archeparchy in the United States. During the meeting, they discussed supporting local residents, rebuilding the city, and providing aid to those affected by the war.