Synodal department for Church’s relations with society and mass media statement on release of Taras Kolodiy

Ukrainian serviceman Taras Kolodiy, who had been taken prisoner in the course of military actions, was released on December 18, 2016, in Donetsk.

Taras Kolody was delivered to the Ukrainian side at the checkpoint Yelenovka/Volnovakha; nothing threatens his life or health. In this connection, the Department for the Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media is authorized to state the following.

A request for assistance in the release of Taras Kolodiy came to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia from His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine, who in his turn received an appeal from the serviceman’s relatives.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia supported Metropolitan Onufry’s petition and appealed to persons on whom the positive resolution of this matter depended. The release of Taras Kolodiy is a result of the Church’s peacemaking participation in settling the conflict in Ukraine and a testimony to the high prestige of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The release of the prisoner took place without any preliminary conditions, as an act of good will.

The Russian Orthodox Church is praying for the cessation of the fratricidal confrontation in Ukraine and believes it important to ensure as soon as possible the release of persons held by the both sides wherever they may be.

The appeal to the moral authority of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as uniting Ukrainians on the both sides of the confrontation is an effective means of achieving national reconciliation in Ukraine.

Synodal Department for the Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media

DECR Communication Service