Dumenko: Unless authorities support the OCU, Putin will come here

"Metropolitan" Epifaniy Dumenko. Photo: bbc.com

If the authorities do not support the OCU, Putin will come to Ukraine. This forecast was given by "Metropolitan" Epifaniy Dumenko in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.

Dumenko said that the authorities should support the OCU, since "there is an ongoing war," although "this is not visible in Kyiv and most of Ukraine." According to him, in all branches of government there are still people who “understand the significance of the existence of an independent autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine,” but their number is not enough.

“The authorities, within the framework of the law, should support the development of the OCU, because it is the Church that strives for the Ukrainian state to be strong. This Church will always lend a shoulder to the Ukrainian state, because it aims to make Ukraine united. If we do not support the Ukrainian authorities, then there will be no Ukraine either. What happens next? Putin will come here. We see what is happening in Crimea and Donbas – there is no freedom there at all. Of course, we do not want to have the same scenario here,” said the head of the OCU.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Dumenko stated that the longer the Ukrainian presidents are in power, the more they support the OCU. 

Read also