Is the anti-UOC propaganda backfiring?

Metropolitan Onufriy and Epifaniy Dumenko. Photo: TSN

Some of those surveys literally labeled the UOC as the “Moscow Church” in their questions – poisoning the well right from the start. Others had laughably opaque counting methods. Almost all of them stank of political order-taking. So no one was exactly shocked when those polls showed the OCU enjoying “astronomical” support, while the UOC was supposedly abandoned and despised.

Not to mention the government’s relentless propaganda machine and the OCU’s chorus, which made sure most “non-churchgoing” Ukrainians sincerely believe the UOC is nothing but an “FSB front” and “pro-Kremlin,” and treat it accordingly.

That’s why the results of the latest SOCIS Center poll are a bit of a surprise. Yes, the majority still view the UOC negatively – but the gap has shrunk noticeably.

For example, when asked if the UOC should be liquidated, 34% said yes, but 31% said no. Practically even. And that’s despite the question explicitly calling it the “Moscow Patriarchate.”

A similar picture emerges on the question of whether the UOC should be stripped of state-owned churches it rents: 38% in favor, 28% against. Again, not exactly a landslide.

In the trust rankings, “Moscow’s” Onufriy trails “Kyiv’s” Epifaniy by just 9 percentage points: 10% versus 19%.

And this is after a nonstop media barrage telling Ukrainians that the UOC is in bed with “bloody Kirill,” while the OCU is the shining embodiment of patriotism.

So what’s going on here?

In our view, there are two possible explanations:

It’s a commissioned poll, and the President’s Office decided to ease off the gas pedal in the campaign to eradicate the UOC, realizing that pushing further might blow up in their faces worse than they thought.

It’s a halfway honest poll. In which case, the brutal church seizures and state persecution have produced the opposite of the intended effect – people are starting to see through the lies and realize the propaganda against the UOC is just that: propaganda.

And if it’s the second scenario? Then the peak of that awakening is still ahead.

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