DESS head explains in Zaporizhzhia why UOC clergy get no draft exemption
Yelensky explained the absence of UOC clergy among those eligible for deferment by saying that the statutes of the Church's communities have lost force in terms of their name.
During a meeting with the clergy of the Zaporizhzhia Eparchy of the UOC, the head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) Viktor Yelensky answered a question about why the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are not granted exemption from mobilization.
The question was read out by Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol. It stated that DESS had approved criteria for "critically important religious organizations" and had "deliberately deprived" the UOC clergy of this status. As a result, according to the question, Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centers (TRCs) are "hunting" down clergymen, detaining them at checkpoints, during religious processions, and even at funeral services.
Yelensky replied that the list of organizations whose leaders and employees are entitled to deferment was approved by an order. The order was agreed with the Ministry of Defense, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) and the Ministry of Justice. It contains seven criteria, and two of them, according to the DESS head, concern the UOC. One of the requirements is that an organization must be registered and its statute must not have lost force in terms of its name.
"One of them: religious organizations must be registered, and their statute must not have lost force in terms of its name. Unfortunately, the statutes of UOC communities have lost force in terms of their name. I am not to blame for that," the official stated.
At the same time, Yelensky added that a priest has no right to take up arms, otherwise he "ceases to be a priest." According to him, mobilization affects not only the UOC but also the OCU, the UGCC and Protestant churches. As he said, DESS has done two things to reduce such cases: it secured an order on exemption and joined the work on a bill on alternative non-military service. He named the Ministry of Economy as the lead body for this bill. He did not give a timeline for its adoption.
Metropolitan Luke objected that priests are already at training grounds, and some of them are being beaten. He said that some are being told: you need to become an OCU chaplain, and "nothing will happen." He cited the words of a commander who threatened a priest that he would be sent "to the front line." The hierarch stated that it is precisely because of the DESS's activity that UOC believers have become "second-class people." In response, Yelensky said that the service allegedly does everything to ensure that religious organizations are equal before the law. He then suggested thinking about why not "meet society halfway" and leave the ROC.
As the UOJ reported, at a meeting with the clergy of the Zaporizhzhia Eparchy, Yelensky urged to refrain from "stupid questions."
