Top Ukraine cleric turns to Starmer in bid for freedom

Prime minister is facing criticism over delay in appointing a new envoy for religious freedom after Zelensky's crackdown

- DAVID MADDOX

Sir Keir Starmer has come under pressure to quickly appoint an envoy for religious freedom after frustration over the delay to replace former Tory MP Fiona Bruce in the role. The row has broken out as a leading Ukrainian Orthodox Church priest has appealed to the UK for help in urging Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky to end his crackdown on the church and its priests in his country.

Metropolitan Arseniy, the abbot of the Dormition Sviatohirsk Lavra, was arrested over suspicions that he was “disseminating information about the movement or location of armed forces” to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. But he has claimed that his arrest is part of a wider persecution of the church by Mr Zelensky’s government. He has spoken exclusively to The Independent, urging the UK to use its influence to stop the persecution of his church.

The issue was raised at a recent international conference in Berlin and has already seen concern raised by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, as well as the Foreign Office, which has previously confirmed that it is monitoring the situation in Ukraine.

However, the UK is yet to appoint a new envoy for religious freedom, and former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith criticised the government for not having a presence at the conference in Berlin. He said: “Keir Starmer promised that ‘Labour will be a champion of religious freedom’. But after more than 100 days in office, he has still not appointed a special envoy on freedom of religion or belief.

“As a result, only last week, at an international conference in Berlin on this vital matter, attended by senior figures from 38 countries, the UK went unrepresented at a ministerial level. Our presence and our voice have never been more needed. All over the world there are growing numbers of threats to this most fundamental of human rights.”