Political analyst: Zelensky promised to convert to Orthodoxy in 2019
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry and President Volodymyr Zelensky. Photo: Hromadke
Political analyst and historian Kostiantyn Bondarenko stated in an interview with journalist Oleksandr Shelest that President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky is an atheist, despite having said he would convert to Orthodoxy.
"I know that in 2019, in the presence of witnesses, Zelensky promised to convert to Orthodoxy. He made this promise at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. It happened right after his election as President," Bondarenko emphasized, adding that the promise did not have to do with the OCU, as Zelensky was on the premises of the UOC monastery complex at the time.
"We all have seen his subsequent actions," the expert concluded. Bondarenko noted that it is a mistake to consider Zelensky a Jew in a religious sense, as "he is Jewish by ethnicity but not a practitioner of Judaism; he is rather an atheist."
Commenting on the President’s remarks about his belief that God will help Ukraine, Bondarenko said that when Zelensky, as an atheist, addresses God, it sounds blasphemous.
As reported by the UOJ, President Volodymyr Zelensky previously stated that Russia deliberately destroyed Ukrainian churches and tortured and executed priests who refused to serve under Patriarch Kirill.
Read also
In Podgorica, multi-thousand procession held on city's patron saint day
Thousands of believers walked in a procession through the capital of Montenegro, honoring the memory of Saint Simeon the Myrrh-Streaming.
Persecuted UOC parish in Zeleniv reads Great Canon
A Bukovynian Orthodox community, deprived of its church in 2024, conducts Great Lent services in an adapted facility.
Patriarch Bartholomew warns against unacceptable peace for Ukraine
The head of the Constantinople Church stated that to achieve peace in Ukraine, the leaders of nations must take the "narrow path of justice."
MinCulture opens Lavra's Near Caves only for groups and by reservation
The Ministry of Culture's statement says that "the opening of the Near Caves for believers is not only a long-awaited and outstanding event in church life but also a sign of the indestructibility of our faith".
Metropolitan Onuphry reads Great Canon at Intercession Convent of Kyiv
The Primate of the UOC led the Great Compline with the reading of the second part of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete at the capital's Intercesssion Convent.
OCU “hierarch” selling fake ID documents sent to pre-trial detention center
The Ivano-Frankivsk court has chosen a preventive measure for the OCU "bishop" suspected of issuing fictitious ordination certificates for the rank of deacon to evade mobilization.