You're reading: Ukraine launches chaplaincy for armed forces

Ukraine’s military is to introduce a fully-fledged chaplaincy for its armed forces, breaking with the long Soviet legacy of keeping religion out of the army.

Starting from May 15, the first clergymen from various confessions will start to serve – primarily with combat units on the Donbas frontline, Major-General Oleh Gruntkosky, a Ministry of Defense spokesman, said on April 20.

Up to four chaplains per brigade will meet soldiers’ and officers’ spiritual needs, along with providing regular psychological counselling, Gruntkosky said.

By the end of the year, chaplains are to be officially assigned to all military detachments deployed throughout the country, including army, air and naval forces and airborne special units. To serve, a potential chaplain must initially be interviewed by a military unit’s commanders, and then obtain official tenure for the position, Gruntkosky said.

The official introduction of the chaplaincy comes three years after the outbreak of war in the Donbas. Since hostilities began, volunteer clergymen have accompanied Ukrainian combat units at the frontline and collected humanitarian aid for local civilians.

However, these chaplains served only on an unofficial basis, and there was no legislation regulating the status of frontline priests.

The first 24 official chaplains underwent two-week courses at the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Army Academy in Lviv in February, in courses overseen by Canada’s Royal Chaplain Service.

The Defense Ministry said it had trained military priests from Ukraine’s most prominent Christian confessions, including Eastern Orthodox, Greek and Roman Catholic, Baptists, Pentecostal, Evangelical, as well as Muslim imams.

Chaplaincy services were officially introduced in the National Guards of Ukraine on March 16.

“Now chaplains will serve not just on a voluntarily basis, but in official positions created for military units,” National Guard spokesman Oleksandr Izdebsky said at a press conference at the launch of the National Guard chaplaincy.

“Today a chaplain is the full-fledged servant. Now he is entitled to be deployed at the war zone with his unit, he gets paid for his service during deployment, and works in a team together with servicemen. Along with this, he works together with a psychologist.”

Forty-four chaplains are to be appointed to National Guard combat units in 2017.