Zelensky has done more to destroy UOC than Poroshenko, journalist says

Volodymyr Zelensky. Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine

Ukrainian journalist Mykola stated in an interview with Radio Zoryana that the current head of state has gone significantly further than his predecessor in attempts to liquidate the UOC.

"Zelensky... over this period has done significantly more to destroy the UOC and to directly support the OCU," the journalist emphasized.

He recalled that Zelensky betrayed the expectations of millions of believers who saw in him an alternative to the course of the previous president. "Zelensky never raised the religious topic at all," Mykola noted. "And then suddenly he raised the same talking points as Poroshenko."

The journalist believes that the NSDC decision and the presidential decree of December 1, 2022 on sanctions against the episcopate, as well as the search for pretexts to seize the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, amounted to a de facto "declaration of war" against the Church. "Everyone understood perfectly well what was being said, and it very soon became clear that he was unequivocally referring to the UOC. In essence, this was a declaration of war against the UOC by Zelensky."

Mykola also cited statistics on church seizures, which confirm the intensification of pressure on Orthodox communities. According to him, while raiders seized around 500 churches during the period from 2014 to 2021, approximately 1,500 Orthodox shrines have already been taken over from 2022 to the present day. "Our churches are being seized on a virtually industrial scale," the journalist emphasized.

As the UOJ reported, in 2019, USAID grant recipients threatened Zelensky with a coup over the UOC.

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