Mr. Oleksandr Merezhko:

I will start with the question regarding India. It is a painful question for me personally because I lived in India for a year. I used to work as a professor of international law at Jindal Global Law School and Jindal Global University. India prides itself on being the biggest democracy. It is a question for India, if it considers itself to be a true democracy, to ask why it is not on the side of all democratic states. What we have now is not only a war by Russia against Ukraine. We should view it in a broader perspective as a war by an authoritarian regime against the free world and democratic states. Countries such as India should be on the side of democratic states because the future of global democracy and of India depends on this battle. For example, I recently visited Jakarta in Indonesia as a member of a delegation to a summit of speakers from the G20. We tried to have bilateral contacts and meetings with all the members of the G20 and other countries that came. We had such contacts with many countries.

For some reason, however, the Indian delegation refused to meet us. That is very worrisome and telling. I do not understand what is going on. I was invited to appear on Indian television a couple of times and, from what I saw, they understand the truth and what is going on. They understand who is the true perpetrator and who is responsible for this aggression. It may be a difficult choice between material or economic interests on one hand, and values and principles on the other. At a certain point, it may be that each country has to make this difficult choice. Countries have to decide whether to choose interests and values such as democracy, rule of law, security of the world and the fate of democracy in the world, or their selfish economic interests by buying Russian oil and gas at a discount. Unfortunately, India is not making the right choice. We have to work with it. We have to persuade it. It is not hopeless. We need to have more contact but, unfortunately, we do not have that contact at the moment.

As for the churches, it has always been a complicated issue. In Ukraine, we are a secular state. Under our constitution, it is prohibited for the state to interfere with the events of religion. It is one of the principles of our constitutional law, and we absolutely agree with that. Things change when we are dealing with the fact that, under the guise of the church, there is a propaganda machine of the enemy. Since Soviet times, the Russian Orthodox Church has always been a part of the propaganda machine controlled by the state. It acted under control. Now, the Russian Orthodox Church is being used as an element of Russian propaganda, even the war machine, against Ukraine. The representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church - the priests - are giving their blessing to Russian soldiers to kill Ukrainians. This is true. This is the blessing of genocide against Ukrainians. Let us be frank and honest about this. To us, it is a big problem. There are several Orthodox churches. One is Ukrainian and it is totally independent of Russia. Another such church has historically been dependent on Russia and the Moscow Patriarchate. I am not a religious person but I believe the latter Ukrainian church, which has had ties with Moscow, should sever those ties. It should be on the side of citizens of Ukraine who are defending their lives and the lives of their families against foreign aggression. At least, it should not support Russian propaganda against Ukrainian people. I understand it is a delicate issue but, in times when we are fighting for our survival, it is also an important political issue. I noticed that, starting in 2014, the common people who attended the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine realised that Russia brings death to Ukraine, and they moved away from these relations with Moscow. There are important changes taking place right now. I am not an expert on religious matters; I am just expressing my personal view as a citizen of Ukraine.

What was the other question asked by the Deputy?