Appeal of the Ukrainian Churches and Religious Organizations on the Occasion of the Foreign Aggression

2 March 2014

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

In this difficult time when military units of the Russian Federation, violating international and bilateral agreements, entered the sovereign territory of Ukraine and the Soviet of Federation by presentation of the President of Russia has given its permission to use employment of the Russian troops in Ukraine – we, first of all call all of you and all the people of the good will to solidarity with us, to prayer for Ukraine and Ukrainian nation.

We call the Russian authorities to come to senses and stop its aggression against Ukraine, and immediately pull out Russian troops from the Ukrainian land. All the responsibility before God and mankind for irreparable consequences fully falls on the leadership of Russia.

There is no oppression by the language, nation and denomination in our country. Therefore we witness that all the efforts of the Russian propaganda to represent all the events in Ukraine as “fascist coup de tat” and “extremists’ victory” do not correspond to reality absolutely.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Russia!

The Ukrainian people have only friendly, fraternal feelings toward the Russian people. Do not believe the propaganda that enflames hostility between us. We want and we will continue to build friendly and fraternal relations with Russia but only as a sovereign and independent state.

We appeal to the international community, to the countries-guarantors of the security of Ukraine – the United States of America and Great Britain, to the European Union, to the United Nations and OSCE: stop foreign invasion into Ukraine and brutal interference into our internal affairs! Undermining of peace and stability in Ukraine threatens to destroy all the modern system of the world security. Therefore all the measures should be used to stop breaking up of the war in Ukraine.

Brothers and Sisters!

Churches of Ukraine are with the Ukrainian people. We know for sure: God is not in might, but He is in the truth. The truth in on the side of the Ukrainian people. Therefore we shall win.

May the Lord protect all of us!

• Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko), Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate;
• Archbishop Sviatoslav (Shevchuk), Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church;
• Viacheslav Nesteruk, Chairman of the Evangelical Baptist Union of Ukraine;
• Senior Bishop Mykhailo Panochko, the Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith of Ukraine;
• Victor Alekseenko, Head of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ukraine;
• Senior Bishop Leonid Padun, the Ukrainian Christian Evangelical Church;
• Bishop Vyacheslav Horpynchuk, Ukrainian Lutheran Church;
• Rabbi Jacob Dov Bleich, the Chief Rabbi of Kiev and Ukraine and United Jewish religious organizations in Ukraine.

Kyiv, 1 March, 2014, 11:30 p.m.