SBU head on work with UOC: Commander-in-Chief sets the pace

Acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Vasyl Maliuk. Photo: a screenshot of Natalya Mosiychuk's YouTube channel

The acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Maliuk, said that the SBU reaches out to Ukrainians regardless of their priestly rank. He said this to journalist Natalya Mosiychuk in a video interview "A bouquet of cotton from the SBU chief".

"As of today, we have 50 criminal investigations, 19 suspicions, 5 court verdicts," Maliuk said. In his opinion, the UOC structures are "an environment favourable for the functioning of an enemy residency". And the task of the SBU is to " cleanse out this environment from the enemy presence in the best possible way".

According to Maliuk, "a mass of evidence of the corresponding illegal activity has been collected: from correspondence with the FSB to St. George's ribbons and literature that Ukraine is Malorossia”.

The acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine says that "under the leadership of our President and Commander-in-Chief, we are doing our best and restoring order". As an example of such work, Maliuk spoke about the situation in the Lavra, where a cleric, in the presence of whom a "song about Russia" was sung, received suspicion.

"This with all the expertise, the conclusions, believe me, there is no bias here," Maliuk assured the journalist, adding that this priest "is very colourful – he slept in a coffin, etc."

Asked by Mosiychuk "why we didn't put an end to the FSB branch in cassocks back in 2014", Maliuk assured that "now we are actively working with it, and our Commander-in-Chief sets the main pace". He said the NSDC has imposed sanctions against "a vast number of Russian clerics and individuals, I stress, who are working for the enemy".

According to Maliuk, the task of the SBU is to weed out the FSB members in cassocks, while the security services will have no questions to those who simply pray to God.

As reported, in Balta the SBU found the propaganda of the "Russian world" - a liturgical collection dated 1976.

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