Political analyst on arrests of UOC hierarchs: A wave of removing Synodals

The Holy Synod of the UOC. Photo: UOC Press Service

Political analyst and historian Kostiantyn Bondarenko spoke in an interview with Oleksandr Shelest about the reasons for the arrests of UOC hierarchs. In his opinion, there is an attempt to destroy the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and everything is going according to the plan outlined by President Volodymyr Zelensky or rather the head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak, together with the DESS head Viktor Yelensky.

"Now there is a wave to actually discredit and neutralise members of the Synod (of the UOC, – Ed.) or prominent figures of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. They are trying to include Metropolitan Jonathan of Tulchyn in the exchange list and send to Russia. We have seen a far-fetched pretext (for the arrest, - Ed.) of Metropolitan Arseniy, the abbot of the Sviatohirsk Lavra," the political analyst said.

Bondarenko believes that this is done in order to remove "the most unyielding pillars of the UOC" so that the remaining decided to move to the "pocket OCU completely managed and created by the government" to avoid problems. And this will be an additional factor of pressure on the UOC.

Commenting on the SBU's visit to Metropolitan Luke of Melitopol and Zaporizhzhia, he said that the bishop made powerful sermons, criticised the authorities and was clearly inconvenient to them. The hierarch of the UOC was charged with inciting religious hatred as they could not find facts in his activities that spoke about his collaboration with the Russian Federation.

As reported, according to the SBU, Metropolitan Luke "provoked and incited religious hatred in Ukraine". The law enforcers stated that "the metropolitan publicly expressed his contempt for the parishioners of other denominations".

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