SW News: Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the head of the Italian Bishops' Conference, visited the Ukrainian capital Kyiv to seek ways to defuse the tension in the war-torn Eastern European country.

During the two-day visit, the Italian prelate will also seek possible ways to achieve peace and support humanitarian gestures that will help ease tensions. The Vatican Press Office said the objective of the mission was to build an environment that can lead to peace and stressed that its immediate aim was not mediation.

In a press conference, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, said interlocutors of the peace process will be Moscow and Kyiv and the Vatican does not want to exclude anyone.

Meanwhile, to bolster national security, the regional parliament of the oblast in Uzhhorod wants to ban all religious organizations linked to Russia. On Thursday, they approved a resolution requesting this. One of the main targets of this resolution seems to be the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Regional Council posted the resolution on Facebook. A photo of Russian Patriarch Kirill and President Vladimir Putin was included with the tweet. A big red cross had been added to the photograph.

The Facebook post states the relevant decision on strengthening national security in the field of activities of public and religious organizations in the territory of the Transcarpathian region was just made by the deputies of the Transcarpathian Regional Council at the plenary meeting of the 10th session.

The decision includes condemning and recognizing unacceptable activities in the territory of Zakarpattia Oblast of religious, church, public and other organizations cooperating with the aggressor country - the Russian Federation.

It also recommends law enforcement agencies ensure a quick and effective response to all revealed facts of cooperation with the aggressor country - the Russian Federation or the conduct of anti-Ukrainian propaganda by representatives of religious, public, and other organizations.

The bulk of the 623 churches in the Zakarpattia Oblast, according to the Ukrainian news website Ukrinform, are Russian churches. But none of the churches have submitted an application to join the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which separated from Moscow in 2018 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

The United Nations is alarmed by what the Ukrainian government is doing to the Russian churches there. In a report on human rights at the end of March, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that official measures directed against the UOC could be discriminatory.