OCU's pseudo-hierarch declares unconditional support for TRCs

Yaremenko in the seized UOC administration in Cherkasy. Photo: Ukrinform

OCU's “Metropolitan” Ioan Yaremenko declared his unconditional support for the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centers (TRCs). He stated this in a video titled “I Am a Chaplain,” published on the OCU’s YouTube channel.

He noted that there is “nationwide hate” against the TRCs, but emphasized that he always defends them.

“We always defend them, because we have to fight. And those who have been mobilized, who are fighting there, say: ‘Listen, if no one is mobilized, who will come to replace us? We are also running out. Someone has to come,’” Yaremenko said.

He also expressed satisfaction that UOC clergy are no longer allowed into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Yaremenko recounted that in 2014, during the ATO, one priest urged soldiers not to go to war, saying that killing is a mortal sin.

“That is only an isolated case for us, while such cases are widespread,” Yaremenko claimed.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that, according to Yaremenko, killing Russians is “not a sin but a sacred duty.”

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