On May 2–3, 2025, at the conclusion of its visit to the United States, the delegation of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) held a series of meetings in Washington, D.C., with representatives of non-governmental organizations, experts, religious leaders, and a member of the German Bundestag.

During a meeting with representatives of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the UCCRO delegation discussed religious persecution in Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories, particularly the decline of Jewish religious life in Donetsk and Luhansk since the onset of Russian aggression in 2014. Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC’s Director of International Jewish Affairs, reaffirmed the organization’s unwavering support for Ukraine and offered practical recommendations for more effectively using international platforms to disseminate accurate information about the Russia–Ukraine war, including religious crimes and broader crimes against humanity committed by the Russian Federation.

Ukrainian and European security issues in the context of transatlantic relations were discussed with Jackson Janes, Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund, and former U.S. diplomat George Noll.

In conversations with representatives of Protestant denominations, Ukrainian religious leaders spoke about the suffering of the Ukrainian people—including children—due to Russia’s military aggression. They called on their American counterparts to continue offering prayers and support to help establish a just peace for Ukraine.

At the end of the visit, the UCCRO delegation met with German Bundestag member Peter Beyer (Christian Democratic Union), who was also visiting Washington, and with representatives of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s U.S. office. The parties exchanged views on the current situation resulting from the Russia–Ukraine war and discussed possible steps Europe could take to strengthen Ukraine’s position. They emphasized the importance of promoting responsible leadership within the European Union. The Ukrainian delegation congratulated the German side on the formation of a new parliamentary coalition, wished the incoming German government fruitful work, and expressed hope for the further development of German-Ukrainian and broader Ukrainian-European relations.

While in Washington, the UCCRO delegation visited the Holodomor Genocide Memorial, commemorating the victims of the 1932–1933 famine, and the monument to Taras Shevchenko, where they honored the great Ukrainian poet and prayerfully remembered the victims of the man-made famine carried out by the Kremlin’s occupying regime.

The UCCRO delegation’s visit to New York and Washington, from April 28 to May 3, 2025, was supported by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, including its offices in the U.S. and Ukraine.

The UCCRO delegation included: Pastor Igor Bandura, Deputy Head of the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, representative of the current UCCRO Chair; Metropolitan Yevstratii of Bila Tserkva, Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine; Bishop Vitaliy Kryvytskyi, Deputy Head of the Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops of Ukraine; Bishop Pavlo Shchomnytskyi, Eparch of Stamford, Head of the Apostleship of the Sea of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church; Anatoliy Kozachok, Senior Bishop of the Ukrainian Pentecostal Church; Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich, Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine, representing the Union of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine; and Oleksandr Zaiets, Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Religious Freedom.