On January 19, the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center hosted a press conference on the occasion of World Religion Day.
Leading experts in the field spoke about the religious sphere in Ukraine in the face of the ongoing war, reports the government watchdog, the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Consience.
According to Oleksandr Sahan, head of the Department of Religious Studies at the Institute of Philosophy, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the number of fake stories spread by the media, claiming alleged oppression of religious rights in Ukraine, has increased recently. The objective of the apparent coordinated campaign is to portray the country in a negative light before international audiences.
According to the scholar, there is an urgent need for high-quality analytics and expertise on religion issues. Such experts are supposed to sustain and support religious freedom after de-occupation of Ukrainian territories currently held by Russia and initiate positive change.
Sahan also emphasized the problems of training specialists in the field of religious studies.
