Dear friends, the Grand Council of the Party of Peace national movement was held on September 28. The governing bodies of the organization were established, and I was highly honoured to be elected as the head of the movement.

In a matter of months since the day when we and other like-minded people initiated the creation of a movement that would unite everyone to achieve peace in our land, thousands and thousands of Ukrainians across the country responded. Civil society organizations, workers' associations and even political parties declared their readiness to unite around this simple, understandable and very important goal.

During these months, our movement has got hundreds of cells in almost every region of the country. Twenty-two regional offices have been created, and our new subsidiaries appear every day.

The idea of peace unites people of the most diverse political views, ages and social status. The idea of peace is now a truly nation-building idea.

I believe that we can build a new, successful and happy Ukraine on the comprehensive idea of peace – peace in the heart of every Ukrainian, peace between Ukrainians, a world without wars and conflicts.

Independence is not just a word, and not a line in the Constitution. 

Independence is when the people themselves make the most important decisions. 

On the way to real independence, we need to stop the war, to overcome hatred and the split. After all, the Lord said: “the state divided against itself, will not stand”. 

That is why we must come to an agreement and mutual respect. 

And then Ukraine will be prosperous and independent! 

Peace, love and best of luck to us all! 

Dear friends! 

Today, we all celebrate the Transfiguration of Christ!

This feast is associated with the event of the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor, when He revealed himself to the disciples no longer in the guise of a common man, but as the Lord radiating divine light and grace.

The Lord showed us the way, since the transfiguration is a real purpose of our life. It is through purification and transfiguration that a person can enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Therefore, the feast of the Transfiguration of Christ is so important and is specially honoured in the Orthodox Church.

Congratulations, dear Orthodox Christians! 

Peace and love to all of us!

Today, we celebrate the Procession of the Venerable Wood of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord and honour the memory of the seven holy Maccabee martyrs.

From today, the Assumption Fast begins, which is short, but strict one.

Our people call this day the Saviour of the Honey Feast Day, because Orthodox Christians bless the honey of the new season in all the temples of our Church. The honey is customarily brought to the church as an explicit manifestation of God's mercy to us sinners.

Happy feast and congratulations on the first day of the Assumption Fast, dear Orthodox Christians!

Today we honour the memory of the holy martyrs, the faithful princes Boris and Gleb, the saints of God, glorified at the very beginning of the heyday of Christianity in our land.

For a thousand years, Christians have revered them as inspirational models, as an example of courageous journey for Christ.

For a thousand years, our Holy Mother Church, using the example of the holy martyrs, has been reminding us how to treat our neighbours, how to correct our lives, how not to fear death, giving your life for love.

Today we praise their feat of faith and ask them prayerfully that all falseness and envy, anger and hatred are eradicated, but true love and brotherly love triumph in Ukraine.

Peace and love to all of us!

Happy Holiday!

On 31 July 2018, the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) of Ukraine applied to Pecherskiy District Court of Kiev for permission to withdraw from the State Migration Service of Ukraine documents relating to the granting of the Ukrainian citizenship to me. The reason is more than doubtful: allegedly the documents were not signed by me, and the signature of the President of Ukraine is missing on the corresponding decree.

The above appeal of the PGO is another example of the persecution of political opponents by those in power, with whom I completely disagree on issues of understanding morality and conscience.

The migration service has repeatedly checked compliance with the procedure and the legality of granting me citizenship. Specially for prosecutors, I publish the official response of the migration service, which clearly states that "no violations of the Ukrainian legislation on citizenship issues have been established." 

Today we honour the memory of the Holy Prophet Elias.

The Holy Church is praising this great Saint of God in festive hymns and calls him the "Earthly Angel", "the second forerunner of the coming of Christ", "the foundation of the prophets».

Christians around the world honour him as the greatest of the prophets, with whom few of those who live on earth can compare. After almost three thousand years, God's Prophet Elias is an example of faithfulness, zeal and courage in the confession of true faith.

Congratulations, dear Orthodox Christians! 

Dear friends! 

Today is not just one of the holidays in the calendar, not just a landmark date of our history. Today is the 1030^th anniversary of the Baptism of Kievan Rus! 

Without exaggeration, this is an event of a global scale that has changed the course of the history of the whole of Europe. Just imagine what the fate of European civilization could be if instead of Christianity Kievan Rus adopted Islam or Judaism then proposed to Prince Vladimir alternatively to Christianity. There is no doubt that the choice made by Prince Vladimir in 988 was civilizational one, predetermining further destiny of both the native state and neighbouring countries for centuries. Yet, this day is important and memorable for us not only for this.

Congratulations, my friends! Peace, accord in minds and hearts, and love to all of us!

Today we celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the revival of monastic life in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.

After years of persecution for faith and after oblivion, the Kiev Pechersk Lavra was one of the first in the USSR to return to our Mother Church in the year of the 1000^th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus. In many respects, the process of spiritual revival in our society began with this. Therefore, the 30^th anniversary of the revival of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra is also the anniversary of the end of the "godless captivity", the anniversary of the "new baptism" and the appeal to God.

Over centuries, the Kiev Pechersk Lavra was and remains a sacred place of promise for our people. Here is the heart and soul of our people.

Congratulating you on this anniversary, I want to wish everyone a prayerful intercession from Saint Anthony and all the Kiev Pechersk saints.

Peace and love to us all!

Today, as always on the third Sunday of July, we celebrate the day of metallurgical and mining industries’ workers in Ukraine, the Metallurgists’ and Miners’ Day.

The mining and metallurgical sector of Ukraine is the backbone of our economy. Today, the mining and metallurgical industries mean the filling-in of the national budget. They mean development of cities, building of infrastructure and creation of jobs. This is the stability and prosperity of our country.

Today it is one of the few branches of the Ukrainian economy where there is huge development and growth potential. We need to keep and, most importantly, to increase the vast experience gained by earlier generations because investing in the industry, in modernization of the domestic industry we invest in success of the whole country.

Friends, on this holiday I want to thank you for your hard, but very honourable work. I want to wish you good health, best of luck and prosperity to your families. God's help to you! I wish us peace in our land!

Happy Holiday!

On 26 June 2018, the 25th Anniversary General Assembly of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy took place in the Hellenic Parliament.

Parliamentary delegations from 27 countries of the world, as well as representatives of the Orthodox Churches, came to Athens to participate in the Assembly. The topic of the meeting was parliamentary democracy and Christian values.

The People’s Deputy of Ukraine Vadym Novynskyi and the representative of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at European organizations, the chief of administrative staff of Kiev Metropoly Bishop Victor (Kotsaba) represented Ukraine at the Assembly.

The main subject of the meeting was parliamentary democracy and Christian values. The situation in the Ukrainian Orthodoxy was also discussed.

Today, our Church prayerfully commemorates Venerable Onuphrius the Great, the heavenly patron of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine.

His Beatitude did not seek any honours, nor earthly fame, nor power, but only service to the Lord. By the grace of God, His Beatitude took on leadership of our Church in the difficult days of hardships and schism.

From that moment on, every day of his life, he does what our Lord Jesus Christ said: "whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant" (Matt. 20:26).

By own example His Beatitude proves that power, especially spiritual power, is not a privilege, is not a reward, but rather hard work, a sacrifice, and it is given only to serve the Lord and people.

Your Beatitude! Today, on your Name Day, I want to whole-heartedly wish you that the Lord will strengthen you with His grace in all your ways, in all your endeavours and initiatives.

Happy Name Day, our dear Grace!

Today, the 22 of June, is a day of sorrow for all those who did not renounce the historical past and did not betray the memory of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers.

We laid flowers on the Grave of the Unknown Soldier in the National Museum "Battle for Kiev in 1943" and prayed for victims of that terrible war.

Wishing to keep the memory of the great feat of our people, we, together with other like-minded people, initiated a long-term program, where we intend to help the museums of that war restore graves and monuments of soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the sake of victory and peace on our Earth. As one of the first steps today we granted a symbolic cheque worth UAH 250,000 to Ivan Vikovan, the director of the museum, for technical maintenance and financial support of the museum's infrastructure. In the future, we plan to increase the support to the museum.

I sincerely believe that keeping the memory of the war and studying the lessons of the war is our sacred duty. We must not allow distortions of the history, much less oblivion of its great and tragic pages.

On 1 June, Vadym Novynskyi had a meeting with Foreign Minister of Turkey, Mr. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, in Alanya, Turkey.

The main topic of the discussion was the economy in bilateral relations between our countries. They discussed metallurgy, shipbuilding, infrastructure issues, as well as topics of mutual investment between Ukraine and Turkey.

By the way, Mr. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu is the former president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and a PACE keynote speaker on the Holodomor of 1932-1933. There is every ground to call him a great friend of our country.

On 18 May, we jointly with the Ukrainian Politics foundation held a large-scale international conference Experience of the Balkan Countries in the Peaceful Settlement of Conflicts in Zagreb, Croatia.

The participants of the conference were politicians, diplomats and experts from Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, Austria and Ukraine. Overall, about forty people took part in the event. The overwhelming majority from the Balkans were politicians and public officials, both current and former ones, who had been most directly involved in resolving the armed conflicts that had erupted in the Balkans in the early 1990s, and in the post-war restoration of the affected regions.

The discussion at the conference was hot, but extremely informative one. The main conclusion derived was that there were no universal solutions. Each country had its own specific problems, and each country solved its conflicts in its unique way.

The word "victory" has one important meaning. Victory means life "after trouble", "after mischief". This is not so much the end of the war as the beginning of a new life.

Saint George is one of the most honoured Christian saints and the patron of the Orthodox host. Saint George and the Dragon legend is filled with the greatest sacred meaning, belief in the victory of the forces of the Good over the Evil, whatever this Evil is associated with – war, crisis, devastation, greed and corruption of authorities, senseless foreign policy or antisocial domestic policy. For each of us, the Evil has its own shape and its outlines, but for each of us Saint George is the inspiration for the fight against this Evil.

Sometimes history sends us symbols that are decoded only after a while. Victory over Nazism was gained precisely in the days of commemoration of the memory of Saint George. The German Instrument of Surrender was received by a man named Georgy...

I believe that the heavenly patron of the Orthodox army will grant Ukraine victory over its troubles and enemies – both external and internal ones. The Good always triumphs. I congratulate you on this great holiday, friends!

Today, on 2 May, we again observe a minute of silence to honour the memory of those who died in Odessa Trade Unions building and in clashes in Grecheskaya Street four years ago. We still do not know the entire truth about what happened on that day. We still do not know who is to blame for this tragedy and who orchestrated and ordered it.

Some thugs from among radicals propose to celebrate this day as the "Day of Victory over Odessa". I think this is an indirect indication of where to search for the perpetrators behind the events of 2 May 2014. However, all these nationalist groups are under reliable patronage and guardianship of the authorities, and crows do not pick crow's eyes, as they say...

I believe that the perpetrators of the tragedy, both on 2 May 2014 and in the ongoing tragedy of 2014-2018, will be named, condemned and punished. There is no forgiveness or oblivion to such atrocities. Justice will necessarily triumph. Sooner or later.

Peace to us all and may the Lord rest the souls of those who died in that terrible tragedy.

Today we honour the memory and feat of life of the Myrrh bearing women, the holy companions of Christ, who served the Teacher not only with their fortune, but also with the works of their hands, devoted to Him with all their hearts, who accompanied Him not only during travel, but also on the way of the cross, on Golgotha and near the Cross itself.

They became examples of the sacrificial service to the Lord. They were the only ones who remained faithful to Christ until the end and who later became the first witnesses of the Resurrection.

Today is a true women's Orthodox holiday! Assistant, faithful companion, keeper of the hearth, tender mother, loving wife, caring daughter – all these wonderful qualities were bestowed on a woman since her appearance in the works of God.

Our dear Orthodox sisters in Christ! On this bright day, I heartily congratulate you and thank you for your faithfulness to the Lord and the Church, for your love and courage and for your dedication. As long as there are real women in our society, it will be full-fledged and our future will be cloudless.

Wish you peace and goodness!