Ukrainian president to visit Istanbul in January

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Epifaniy (Epiphanius) will visit Istanbul on January 6.

Poroshenko said this on Wednesday at the Mariyinsky Palace, where he and his wife Maryna met with talented children, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"On the Christmas Eve of January 6, I will be in Constantinople, along with the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Bishop Epifaniy. I hope that with God's help we will receive a tomos, and this will be a great holiday for the whole of Ukraine and for all Ukrainians," the president said.

He recalled that Metropolitan Epifaniy was elected head of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine at a unification council in Kyiv on December 15. "This church is Ukrainian and open to all," Poroshenko added.

"This is a miracle that His Holiness Bartholomew has given us, and this is also a guarantee of change for the better. This is, in fact, the second independence of Ukraine, spiritual independence," Poroshenko said.