On 15 December 2025, representatives of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) met with Leif Magne Helgesen, a priest of the Norwegian Seamen’s Mission. The meeting was chaired by a representative of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Ukraine, Sheikh Rustam Gafuri, and took place on the premises of the Ar-Rahma Mosque.
Leif Magne Helgesen spoke about his visit to Kyiv and shared his impressions of what he had seen in the context of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.
Representatives of the UCCRO spoke about the activities of churches and religious organizations during the war, about the crimes against humanity committed by the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, and emphasized that religious freedom in these territories can only be ensured after their de-occupation from Russian forces. Drawing on their experience of international advocacy, Ukrainian religious leaders stressed the importance of bearing witness to the truth and called on European Churches to step out of the private sphere and publicly raise their voices on issues of morality, ethics, and the protection of life at the European level.
The meeting between the UCCRO and Priest Leif Magne Helgesen was attended by representatives of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Ukraine, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, the Ukrainian Pentecostal Church, the Ukrainian Union Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine, the Institute for Religious Freedom, as well as Halvor Heggenes, a diplomat from the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in Ukraine.
It is worth recalling that in October 2025 a delegation of the UCCRO paid a visit to Oslo (Norway), where it met with the Norwegian Council of Churches, the King and Queen of Norway, members of Parliament, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway.