Poroshenko declares he won't cast a stone at Filaret due to the Tomos case

Petro Poroshenko and Filaret Denisenko. Photo: RIA Novosti

Whatever the “honorary patriarch” Filaret might do, his role in the creation of the OCU is huge and he will not be thrown a stone. The fifth President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said this in his interview with Ukrainian journalist Yanina Sokolova on the eve of the court hearing in one of the cases opened against him.

Poroshenko said that now 24 proceedings have been opened against him and, according to him, this is an attempt by the Office of the President and personally Vladimir Zelensky to “divert attention from the real problems that the state has encountered, attempts to give popcorn instead of bread and attempts to save the falling rating at the cost of the show". In his opinion, this is a clear political persecution, discrediting Ukraine around the world, as well as "revenge of small, worthless people".

When asked by the journalist whether the head of the UOC-KP Filaret Denisenko was involved in the case of Tomos and the OCU opened against Poroshenko, the ex-president noted that "you couldn't ask a more inconvenient question."

“My answer is as follows: the role of the mission of the honorary patriarch Filaret in creating the Orthodox Church of Ukraine – no matter what he did later – is very tremendous. The people have the right to know the truth, and I will certainly not throw a stone at Filaret, no matter if he witnessed against me or not. Filaret did a great job for his life to help this Church to be born, and we should be grateful to him. And the official version, as far as I understand it, is that the believer of the Kyiv Patriarchate of the UOC, Mr. Dobkin, initiated the case against me for the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Tomos, according to the prosecutor’s version. Well, let's accept this version, let it be,” Petro Poroshenko replied.

As reported by the UOJ, on June 18, Petro Poroshenko stated that a criminal case was opened against him because of the Tomos for the OCU. This statement was refuted by the UOC-KP which specified that the ex-president had been given suspicion in the case of the "raiding of the Kyiv Patriarchate", which was opened at the suit of the community of the UOC-KP church of the Nativity of Christ in Odessa.

On the same day, the former MP of the Verkhovna Rada and parishioner of the UOC Mikhail Dobkin published a statement which was submitted by him back in 2019 to the SBI demanding that Petro Poroshenko be held accountable for his actions, which provoked the "exacerbation of religious (interfaith) confrontation and hostility in the state".

The head of the liquidated UOC-KP Filaret himself, commenting on the case opened against Poroshenko, said that "if you have sinned, be ready for punishment."

Read also