Head of the UGCC, Sviatoslav, states that the Vatican is not a mediator between Ukraine and Russia, and no one has requested this role.

In a comprehensive interview with RBK-Ukraine, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Svyatoslav, the Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halych, discussed how the full-scale war has transformed Ukrainian believers, the relationships with the Ukrainian authorities, Pope Francis, and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, as well as threats from Moscow Orthodoxy and the new calendar.

If sociological data is to be believed, the number of believers in the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate has drastically decreased since the onset of the full-scale Russian invasion. As a result, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has likely become the second-largest church in Ukraine – following the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

However, when asked directly by RBK-Ukraine about this, Svyatoslav responded that his church is not chasing after numbers. He does acknowledge that their numbers have grown in recent years, noting that Greek Catholics are the most active among all Ukrainian churches.

"There are indeed many people who feel betrayed by the Moscow Patriarchate. The experience of trauma and betrayal by one's church – is a very dangerous phenomenon that is right before our eyes. Obviously, sociology does not fully capture it," – Svyatoslav stated.

In addition to fundamental questions about how the war has affected Ukrainian society and believers, and how the church should respond to new challenges, we thoroughly discussed with the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholics the relationships between the UGCC and other Ukrainian churches, as well as with the Holy See – since Pope Francis has made several controversial statements regarding the Russo-Ukrainian war in recent years. To conclude the conversation, we posed several general questions to the head of the UGCC about his church and some stereotypes about church customs that exist in Ukraine.

– Let’s start with a general, fundamental question: how has the full-scale war changed Ukrainian believers, and how has your church changed in response to these new challenges?

– This is already the third time during this full-scale war that we are celebrating Christmas. I will answer your questions from the perspective of the holiday we are experiencing. If everyone analyzes their personal experiences, their families, and their circle of acquaintances – we can assert that the war has been such a shock that it has broken or severed all human relationships. We then had to rebuild everything anew: our relationship with ourselves, understanding who I am, what I should do now, what my priorities are, and my responsibilities towards my father, mother, wife, and children.

In particular, when it comes to believers, the relationship between a person and their God has radically changed, as have all the rules or perhaps habits of our spiritual-religious life. Therefore, it can be said that we have all become different.

For many of our friends abroad, who sometimes boast, saying, "Oh, I know Ukraine because I’ve been there before, I know Ukrainians" – I tell them all: "The Ukraine you knew before no longer exists." And we will no longer be the same. But we want to be better. Having endured this tragedy, and still experiencing it, I believe we are going through a moment of some new birth. Or rather, a rebirth. We feel that heroes are emerging among us whom we had previously overlooked. A great calamity indeed gives rise to great giants of spirit, revealing some deep foundations, the matrices of our national and spiritual life.

In other words, we have all become different. Now our task – is for everyone to become better.

– After the full-scale invasion in 2022, sociological surveys indicated a significant increase in the number of those who believe in God in Ukraine. However, the figures gradually returned to previous levels. Was this to be expected?

– I try to listen very carefully to such level of research, although they are always relative. People experience tragedy and their relationships to the circumstances of this war differently. A popular saying goes: in times of distress, people turn to God.

However, we can often encounter a certain crisis of faith during wartime. We sometimes rush to seek some higher power that would guarantee my personal safety, my well-being, that everything will be alright. But in reality, it doesn’t work that way. The true living God – is a person, He is someone, not something; we must build a relationship with Him. Those relationships can be complex. Just as we must discover and understand another person, so too must we come to know God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in the context of our relationship with Him.

1 I would say that, particularly in the first months and the first year of the war, the understanding of God as a great protector, guaranteeing all our well-being, was put into crisis. Thank God, because breaking this stereotype helps us build a relationship with our God without bias and to ask Him: God, where are You? Where can I find You during the war? How should I communicate with You today? We then rediscover God’s presence among us.

Many people told me that when the war began, there was a feeling that God seemed to have vanished from our spiritual horizon. And then He reappeared. Over nearly three years of this war, we have experienced several such moments: moments of fear, helplessness, and then regaining our strength. A moment, perhaps, of national effort to defend the homeland, followed by exhaustion.

And then we seek that source to restore our strength. And we find God as a source that renews us. He heals wounds, cures our fatigue, and is the secret of our resilience. And thus we astonish the world. But the experience of war helps us, as believers, to know and rediscover the life-giving God in a new way and, evidently, with new strength, perhaps even better, to build our spiritual relationships with Him.

– Recently, a meeting of the Synod of your church took place with the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, in the context of implementing the "Ukraine's Resilience Plan". What is the role of the church here in general, and your church in particular?

– We are very pleased to see how gradually our state authority is recognizing the role and place of the church during the trials of war in Ukrainian society.

Because at times, it seemed that some officials did not see the church. Sometimes they had this illusion of excessive self-confidence: we can do everything ourselves, and so on. But now, gradually, our statesmen understand that religious life, the church, is the secret of success and the source of our true victory.

We were very pleased that the president, when presenting his victory plan in the Verkhovna Rada, specifically dedicated attention to state-church relations. In particular, he assessed the role and place of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (AUCCRO) in Ukrainian society.

This is not just about the church's social ministry or international advocacy for Ukrainian national interests. It’s about the role of spiritual support for our people during times of war. The presence of a priest in the life of every person during this hardship proves to be indispensable. Because we need pastoral care, or, as our Protestant brothers say, soul care.

It is essential for us to feel that someone cares about us. That I am not forgotten, not abandoned. That when I am in pain, I know who to turn to for advice and help. And there, I will surely be welcomed and helped. In this way, I believe, the role of the church reveals itself particularly and anew in our modern history.

When it comes to our church, it is currently in a very interesting position, even in relation to other churches and religious organizations. We are a church that is related to our Orthodox brothers through our history and roots; we are a church of Kyiv Christianity. But we live in full communion with the Universal Catholic Church. And this gives us the opportunity to be part of the network of universal Christianity. Half of our church’s structures are located outside Ukraine.

Thus, the entire previous history of globalization of our church, which we have experienced through periods of Ukrainian emigration abroad since the late 19th century, is being re-mobilized for the needs of Ukraine and its statehood today. Our church has always been a nation-building force throughout the centuries.

That is why the Russian aggressor despises and hates our church. When the Russian Empire gradually occupied parts of Ukraine, the first institution it sought to destroy was indeed our church. This was the case in the territories of the former Russian Empire, and it was the same during Soviet times. And when our church emerged from underground, it was a harbinger of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Therefore, today, when some Kremlin leader wants to restore the Soviet Union once again, the first institution he wants to eliminate – is our church. This is exactly what is happening in the occupied territories.

Thus, we always serve as what I would