Yelensky on why DESS relied on Russian documents in its “expert review"

Viktor Yelensky. Photo: DESS Facebook

Viktor Yelensky attempted to explain why the “research” of DESS officials into the alleged ties of the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC with the aggressor state is based on documents of that same aggressor state.

Commenting on the claim that one might just as well examine the status of Ukraine’s occupied territories according to the Russian Constitution (where they were incorporated by Russia), Yelensky dismissed such comparisons as groundless.

He stated emotionally that “such things” are “awkward even to comment on and awkward to compare.”

As justification for his position, Yelensky asserted that DESS officials in their document had “shown” what “Moscow meant when it granted autonomy and independence in governance.”

“When it (the ROC – Ed.) meant real independence and real autonomy, it would word this in a fundamentally different way,” Yelensky declared.

Still, he did not explain how this relates to the fact that virtually the entire “expert review” is built on the analysis of Russian documents.

“For that, in fact, the reference to the documents of the Russian Orthodox Church was made,” he concluded, adding that in 2017 the bishops of the UOC did not protest when amendments concerning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were introduced into the ROC Charter.

Yelensky likewise failed to explain why the “expertise” performed by DESS ignored the 2022 Charter of the UOC, in which all administrative ties with the ROC were struck out.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Yelensky advised UOC clergy to switch confessions as a means of protection from mobilization.

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