On the persecution of "Jews" from the UOC in Lviv

The host of the NTA program. Photo: NTA

A shocking video aired on the Lviv-based NTA channel. Like in a spy thriller, journalists tracked priests and believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), who, after their churches were shut down by the authorities, began secretly gathering in private apartments. People with cameras staged ambushes, followed by raids. They broke into so-called "safe houses", aiming to expose the "enemy":

“A group of believers heading toward the apartment we had uncovered suddenly changed direction. And when all the curtains in the windows were drawn, it became clear that we had been exposed. The parishioners, along with the priest, quickly dispersed. So we had to approach the now nearly empty apartment with a camera,” the report said.

Here are the epithets that journalists and their "experts" used to describe the clergy and parishioners of the UOC, as well as their actions:
• "supporters of the Russian world";
• "still praying for Putin and Patriarch Kirill";
• "potential new murderers of new Parubiys are gathering in these premises";
• "FSB agents in cassocks recruit parishioners";
• "adepts of the Russian world";
• "If, for example, 20 of these people gather in an apartment, that's essentially a ready-made group of saboteurs who, so to speak, go around and leak information about what's happening in Lviv to the appropriate sources";
• "Putin uses the UOC-MP as a weapon, and its ministers and parishioners as agents".

The footage of the exposers shows shabby doors of "safe houses", peeling walls, and people fearfully covering their faces with clothing. And, undoubtedly, their fear is justified. In a warring country, all the above quotes are grounds to consider these people enemies with all the ensuing consequences. And the consequences will certainly follow, as journalists published the exact addresses of the apartments where "FSB agents" gather for services.

In 2022, in another city of Lviv region, Stryi, radicals doused a priest with green paint right during the Liturgy. He also served in one of the secret apartments, and its address became known to the militants. And green paint is still a "light" version.

On the day the NTA video was released, a man attacked a priest during the Liturgy in the UOC church in Kryvyi Rih. The blow of the axe was taken by the Gospel and the mitre. This happened despite the fact that he had nothing personally against this priest. The assaulter (a former military man) had problems, and he decided to vent his anger on the first "enemy" he encountered. And who is the enemy today? "Moscow priests" and "FSB agents".

The UOC clergy and believers become labeled as "enemies" thanks to journalists like these and their so-called experts — and thanks to the president's "Kvartal 95" show. What they are doing isn’t just inciting hatred — it’s outright persecution, a command "attack" to the radicals.

Not long ago, Zelensky, with a solemn expression, laid flowers at the site of the Nazi massacre in Babyn Yar. But Babyn Yar originated not in Ukraine but in Germany back in the 1930s, when the Nazi regime was persuading the population that Jews were to blame for the country’s economic problems, that they had taken over the best professions, and that Jews were “loyal to their religion, not to the German state”.

Today, Yelensky, Zelensky, and the likes of Epifaniy are assuring Western partners of an unprecedented "freedom of religion" in Ukraine. But if nothing changes, then very soon the entire country will turn into one big Lviv for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. And as for the partners, they’ll only start suspecting something, perhaps, when camps for the faithful start to be built here....

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