Budanov instead of Yermak: Will anything change for the UOC?

Dumenko and Budanov. Photo: OCU

Zelensky has offered the post of head of the Presidential Office to Kyrylo Budanov, the chief of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR). Budanov accepted. Given the weight of this position, believers of the UOC are wondering how such an appointment might affect the state’s attitude toward the Church.

Of course, the first thought is: “It can’t get any worse anyway.” But that is not entirely true. Despite the law adopted to ban the UOC, the 2,000 seized churches, and the overall rhetoric of the authorities aimed at destroying the Church, the final reckoning has not yet taken place. The court proceedings to outlaw the Kyiv Metropolis are still ongoing.

Let us say at once: with Budanov’s arrival, no sharp turnaround should be expected. The head of the HUR is a regular guest at Serhiy Dumenko’s residence. Since 2020, he has been there ten times. Epiphanius awarded Budanov several orders and, in return, received as a gift a vase and an icon on which Serhiy Petrovych is depicted together with the HUR chief. In other words, Dumenko and the new head of the Presidential Office have the closest and most friendly relations.

At the same time, Budanov is not a parishioner of the OCU. More than that, he has similarly close ties with representatives of other religious organizations. For example, he regularly takes part in Jewish menorah-lighting ceremonies and even puts on a kippah. Also, in 2025 Budanov opened a military mosque and presented it with compilations of prayers and remembrances of Allah for Muslim soldiers, prepared by the Military Chaplaincy Service of the HUR of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine.

Will the new head of the Presidential Office use his position to wage war against the UOC? Budanov is one of the few members of Ukraine’s elite who has not allowed himself inflammatory statements directed at the Church. Will anything change once he assumes the office?

It seems that neither the clergy nor the faithful are likely to be greatly concerned. We have already learned that the Psalmist’s call “put not your trust in princes” has a far deeper meaning than we once imagined.

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