UETS President Speaks at the US Institute of Peace

UETS President Ivan Rusyn is currently on a visit to the United States as a member of a delegation of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations.

The program of the visit comprises numerous meetings and public discussions with partners and opinion makers, representatives of the US Department of State, Congress, Heritage Foundation and US Institute of Peace to make the truth about the ongoing war known, discuss the issue of religious freedom in Ukraine and exchange ideas on how to help Ukraine. 

Addressing the audience, during a panel discussion at the US Institute of Peace (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM4aSXLJ5zQ), Dr. Ivan Rusyn, first and foremost, thanked the United States for supporting Ukraine… He underlined that the ongoing war is not about Ukrainian land but about the “very existence of the Ukrainian nation, its freedom, identity, values and culture.” “There is no space for Ukrainian identity under the Russian dominion,” added UETS President.

He also drew attention to the problem of religious freedom in Ukraine and its factual absence in the occupied territories where believers, including UETS graduates, had been tortured and murdered just because they had another faith. 

Reminding of the atrocities and horrors of the ongoing war, Dr. Ivan Rusyn quoted Martin Luther King who said “Injustice somewhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

The visit testifies to cross-denominational and cross-confessional unity and mutual understanding among representatives of different churches in their joint prayers and struggle for Ukraine.