Government’s dreary "crisis canagement" against the UN

Kliment Kushch and Viktor Yelensky. Photo: Youtube.com

This came after the UN published a rather harsh report before the New Year, criticizing the law banning the UOC as well as some of the most blatant cases of church seizures (particularly in Cherkasy). This forced the authorities to “react”.

Ukraine’s diplomats at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) had already angrily rebuked the UN, while MP Poturaev claimed the UN was infiltrated by Putin’s agents. Yelensky was next to speak. He was paired with a Russian citizen (!) from the OCU, the Crimean “Metropolitan” Kliment Kushch, who immediately began echoing the MFA’s theses, asserting that the UN should criticize Russia, not Ukraine.

Here are some of the most notable points made by the speakers:

1. The UOC must be banned because Metropolitan Onufriy is a member of the ROC Synod.

Both Yelensky and Kushch made this claim.

While Kushch might simply be uninformed, Yelensky knows perfectly well that, in letter No. 0838 dated September 28, 2022, His Beatitude informed DESS: “From now on, the decisions of the ROC Councils are not grounds for the activities of the UOC Council of Bishops, and the Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine has ceased his membership in the ROC Holy Synod.”

Thus, it can be stated that the speakers were simply lying.

2. The UOC must be banned because the ROC committed crimes in the occupied territories.

This is an extremely cheap manipulation, as the UOC has no connection to these events. On the contrary, the UOC has suffered and continues to suffer from the destruction of churches, the killing of priests, and the annexation of entire dioceses. Yelensky himself even acknowledged the latter.

3. The law does not ban the UOC; it bans denominations “affiliated with the ROC”.

This is an even cheaper manipulation. Lawmakers who passed the law explicitly referred to the “UOC-MP.” Moreover, in 2023, Yelensky himself organized an examination to prove this very “affiliation.” In other words, to destroy the UOC while appearing “democratic,” the authorities are simply playing with terminology.

4. The law banning the UOC does not affect its believers.

The claim is that they can still attend liturgies, follow the Julian calendar, etc. They just need to declare themselves “super independent.” The fact that doing so would essentially reduce their canonical status to that of the OCU (or rather, its lack thereof) is presented as their problem.

5. UOC clergy will not receive military draft exemptions.

The justification remains the same: as long as there is “affiliation with the ROC”, they will be sent to war. This logic suggests giving “Kremlin agents” weapons to fight against the Kremlin.

Perhaps the most cynical remarks by Yelensky were directed at Noël Calhoun, the Deputy Head of the Human Rights Mission (who, incidentally, thoroughly refuted all of the absurd accusations made by Ukrainian authorities against the UN).

He claimed that any statements about bans on the UOC “have no relation to reality”:
“If we leave this room right now, we can easily visit a (church – Ed.) of the UOC, which is under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate.”

Mr. Yelensky, can we “easily” visit the Lavra and venerate the relics of the saints? Can we visit the demolished Church of the Tithes? Can we visit the UOC churches in Kyiv region, almost all of which have been “transferred” to the OCU? What about the churches in Lviv or Ivano-Frankivsk regions, whose authorities have already reported the “elimination” of the “Moscow Church”?

Everyone knows the answers to these questions, including Yelensky. Everyone knows he will not tell the truth. Everyone knows that this press conference is just a clumsy propaganda “response” by the authorities to those who speak the truth about the persecution of the Church in Ukraine.

Incidentally, even our “super-patriotic” media know this. None of them attended the event. Apparently, even they have got bored by now.

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