KYIV – Addressing the Kyiv Security Forum on April 12, Patriarch Sviatoslav of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church noted the ongoing informational war in Ukraine, whose goal is to fragment society and create antagonism.
“A few days ago, I read the words of one of the relatives of the Heavenly Hundred. This wife of the deceased dear person said that Ukraine might become the first state to be destroyed by the TV. I would not like to think so categorically, but today these dangers do exist,” he said.
Patriarch Sviatoslav stated: “We are really experiencing today a variety of technologies that try to divide us. The lines of conflict today are more delicate and sophisticated. We see that those lines can go between those who are watching the TV and those who do not watch it.”
He emphasized that this informational war is an integral part of Russia’s hybrid war, and it tries to fragment our society into so-called target groups. “Indeed,” he said, “we can go to the same church, read information from social networks, not from the TV, and be completely different in our assessment of the current circumstances of society. So someone is attempting to divide us, and then [cause us] to oppose each other.”
The primate of the UGCC noted that this year Ukraine is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the unity of the Ukrainian people, while last year the country celebrated the 100th anniversary of the restoration of Ukrainian statehood.
“Our parents and grandfathers with bitterness felt the value of the loss, when, because of those circumstances, Ukraine was again enslaved. Today, we must be wise enough to appreciate not what we have lost, but what we have today. And this for us all should be the starting capital,” stressed Patriarch Sviatoslav.
The role of the Church and religious institutions in such circumstances is, first of all, according to the head of the UGCC, to create core values, which are always the main foundation of the organization of any social institution. Around these core values will later be grouped those in politics and business, those who are older and younger. If there is no this common foundation, then we are in danger.
Patriarch Sviatoslav cited four principles, which until recently have been regarded a success for any society, and today, in his opinion, are a security issue. “And these four principles are nothing more than European values,” stressed the primate.
The first, he said, is the dignity of the human person. The dignity of the human person is the foundation of European civilization.
The second is the common good. If there is no common good, then everything is fragmented. There is no state then.
The third is solidarity. Ukraine would not have survived in the past five years if people were not in solidarity in defending their state and in helping the victims of this war.
The fourth is subsidiarity. That is, everyone is doing his job in his own place, according to what he can do, in order to achieve the common goal.
Expressing his position on state-building, Patriarch Sviatoslav focused attention on the values that today are truly a security issue for Ukraine, for the whole of Europe and even for the world. He added that the European aspirations of the Ukrainian people have not changed.
The Kyiv Security Forum, at which the UGCC patriarch spoke, was launched in 2007 by Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s Open Ukraine Foundation. The forum is an annual event, a high-level discussion on topical issues of national security, the Black Sea region, security issues in Europe and global security in the world. The importance of the religious aspect in the issue of security was considered for the first time during this year’s Kyiv Security Forum.