UGCC Bishops to Speaker Johnson: The price of delay is people’s lives

The delegation of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church held several meetings to support Ukraine in the Senate, Congress and the US State Department. The UGCC press service reported this on Thursday, March 7.

Among other things, the UGCC bishops met with the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, who has long obstructed the allocation of aid to US allies, particularly Ukraine.

During the meeting, the bishops emphasized the need to provide Ukraine with an aid package to protect people’s lives.

“We need your help to survive. The price of every day of delay in aid to Ukraine is the lives of people that Russia kills in cold blood,” emphasized the Primate of the UGCC, His Beatitude Svyatoslav.

He drew the speaker’s attention to the suffering of the people of Ukraine and warned against using their pain as a tool to achieve political goals. “We speak on behalf of ordinary people and it pains us when someone plays politics against the background of our pain and suffering,” the UGCC leader said.

In turn, Metropolitan Boris Gudzyak recalled that Ukraine voluntarily abandoned its nuclear arsenal 30 years ago, believing in the power of international law, and the United States acted as one of its security guarantors.

There was also a meeting with US Senate Minority Leader Republican Mitch McConnell. On behalf of the Ukrainian people, His Beatitude Svyatoslav thanked McConnell for his empathy and support.

“The most important thing we can do now is to help Ukraine,” the senator noted for his part.

Members of the delegation also met with Deputy Assistant Secretary for Eastern European Affairs Christopher Smith and Deputy Director of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom Jason McInnerney.

They informed the representatives of the department about the violation of religious freedom and human rights in the territories of Ukraine captured by Russian troops. Among other things, they emphasized that the Russian Federation is the enemy of religious freedom.

The head of the UGCC called for help in the return from captivity of Greek Catholic priests from the temporarily captured Berdyansk, Zaporozhye region – Ivan Levitsky and Bogdan Getela.

The bishops emphasized that Russia’s genocidal war against Ukraine has a clear ideological basis, its goal being the destruction of the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian Church.

As reported, on February 13, the US Senate supported a package that provides more than $60 billion for Ukraine, mainly for military aid. But the bill was never considered in the House of Representatives because of Speaker Johnson’s refusal to bring it to a vote.

Now US congressmen are preparing an alternative bill to support allies, particularly Ukraine. In it, part of the benefit can be converted into a loan, and its processing is delayed for several weeks.