Kravchuk and Yushchenko ask Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to open a representative office in Ukraine

Ex-presidents flew to Istanbul with a secret mission: to ask the Ecumenical Patriarchate to open a representative office in Ukraine, reports Korrespondent.net.

August 31, 2016, the first and third presidents of Ukraine secretly visited Istanbul, where they met with Patriarch Bartholomew. According to a source close to the negotiations, Bartholomew rejected the ex-presidents. He agreed to take the issue to the Patriarchate at a formal request of President Petro Poroshenko.

Representatives of Leonid Kravchuk in comments confirmed the meeting, but promised to reveal its content later.
Recall that in June the Verkhovna Rada asked the Patriarch of Constantinople to recognize the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church. The spokesperson of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Alexandros Karlutsos called the Rada’s petition "a bold step" and said that the spiritual head of Ukraine is Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.