Journalist: Zelensky has done more to destroy the UOC than Poroshenko
A Ukrainian journalist said that Zelensky "declared war" on the UOC in 2022.
Ukrainian journalist Mykola Moiseyenko stated in an interview Zoryana Radio that the current head of state has gone significantly further than his predecessor in attempts to liquidate the UOC.
"Zelensky has done significantly more during his time in office to destroy the UOC and to provide direct support for 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," Mykola noted. "And then suddenly he began advancing the same talking points as Poroshenko."
Moiseyenko believes that the decision of the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) and the presidential decree of 1 December 2022 imposing sanctions on the episcopate, along with efforts to find grounds for the seizure of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, amounted to a de facto "declaration of war" against the Church. "Everyone understood perfectly well what was being referred to, and it soon became clear that he was unequivocally speaking about the UOC. In essence, this was a declaration of war against the UOC by Zelensky,” he said.
Mykola Moiseyenko 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 seized 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.
