OCU calls cross processions of UOC as "undermining peace in Ukraine"

Spokesman of the OCU Ivan (Eustratiy) Zoria. Photo: religionpravda.com.ua

"Hierarch" Ivan (Eustratiy) Zoria hopes that the Ukrainian authorities are doing their job with regard to "all these pro-Moscow events" so that they do not lead "to something worse." This is how the spokesman of the OCU answered the question of an Ukrinform journalist about religious processions and public appeals of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

As Zoria noted, “we’ve seen what such supposedly religious events can lead to: what happened to Crimea, what happened to a part of Donbas.”

“The state cannot bring people to justice for their own convictions. But if they take actions, especially in cooperation with the Russian special services, with the aggressor country, aimed at undermining our state, our society, undermining peace in Ukraine, of course, this has a completely different qualification and those endowed with the appropriate rights by the people and the law should respond to this," said the spokesman of the OCU.

He stated that in recent months the state "has become quite active in this direction" and recalled the narrative of the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Alexei Danilov, who "quite explicitly spoke about the fact that the environment of the Moscow Patriarchate and the structure of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine are also used to destabilize the situation in our state.”

“I hope that those concerned are doing their job so that all these pro-Moscow events, all these calls in the spirit of the ‘Russian world’ would not lead to something worse,” concluded the “hierarch” of the OCU.

Let us remind you that earlier NSDC Secretary Danilov called the processions of the UOC “an effective instrument of the Russian hybrid war” and warned the organizers of peace forums about criminal responsibility. Experts believe that such groundless statements by an official in a state governed by the rule of law would entail his resignation.

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