Rada appoints new Minister of Culture
Mykola Tochytskyi. Photo: t.me/stranaua
On September 5, 2024, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine appointed Mykola Tochytskyi as the Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications, according to the Strana publication.
252 members of parliament voted in favor of Mykola Tochytskyi's candidacy.
Mykola Tochytskyi is a diplomat who began his career in 1993 as an attaché and later secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2001, he was appointed as an advisor to Ukraine’s Permanent Representation to the Council of Europe, and in 2005, he became Consul General in San Francisco.
From 2010 to 2016, he served as Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe, and from 2016 to 2021, he was the Ambassador to Belgium and concurrently the Representative of Ukraine to the EU and the European Atomic Energy Community.
In September 2021, Tochytskyi was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and on April 15, 2024, he became Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Previously, UOJ reported that Acting Minister of Culture Karandeev stated in May 2024 that UOC monks would be forcibly removed from the Lavra within a month.
Read also
Met. Saba: The Church Offers Authentic Masculinity and Femininity
Antiochian hierarch urges deeper study of conversion trends, stressing that Orthodoxy offers complementarity — not competition — between men and women.
GOARCH Sets 2026 Clergy-Laity Congress for Cleveland
GOARCH will convene its 2026 Clergy-Laity Congress in Cleveland, highlighting parish renewal under the theme “Rise and Build,” alongside major Philoptochos and young-adult gatherings.
Monastic Vocations Gathering Draws Young Men to St. Peter's Monastery
Visit from Hilandar abbot highlights growing interest in Orthodox monastic life in America.
HCHC Wins $7.5 Million Lilly Endowment Grant to Revamp Priestly Formation
Grant will fund redesigned Master of Divinity program with extensive parish-based training.
Islamists Desecrate Orthodox and Presbyterian Churches in Sudan
Two Port Sudan churches were defaced with Islamic graffiti, highlighting rising anti-Christian hostility amid the Sudanese civil war.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa Falls Asleep in the Lord
The Tokyo-born performer will be remembered for decades of film and TV work. In 2015, he was baptized into the Orthodox faith, taking the name Panteleimon.