For the release of prisoners Poroshenko thanks UOC and "Ukrainian Churches"

On January 20, during the meeting of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine with Petro Poroshenko, the President expressed his gratitude to the UOC for active assistance in the release of prisoners of war, while in a post on his Facebook page the head of the state wrote of his gratitude to "Ukrainian Churches".

"I am grateful to Ukrainian Churches for assistance in the release of Ukrainian captives and support of their families. For our joint work, which we are doing to free Ukrainians in the occupied territories and Ukrainian political prisoners from Russian prisons," writes the President.

During the meeting of the Primate of the UOC with Petro Poroshenko, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry assured that the UOC would continue to mediate the release of Ukrainian hostages. "A man wants to be free, he is created by God free, he wants this freedom," said the First Hierarch.

Earlier, with the active mediation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on December 27, 2017, a large-scale exchange of prisoners took place in the Donbass: 73 Ukrainian prisoners of war were released. The freed combatants expressed gratitude to the Primate and asked him to continue attempts to release those who remained imprisoned.

Experts stressed that despite the fact that the exchange was the result of the efforts of the UOC and the ROC, representatives of the UOC-KP and the RCC, who had nothing to do with the prisoner swap, promoted themselves as they were brought to the exchange by the protocol service.