Yelensky says UOC believers die in war by hundreds of thousands
The DESS head admits hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian Orthodox Church believers are taking part in the war.
The head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) Viktor Yelensky said at a meeting with the clergy of the Zaporizhzhia Eparchy that "tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands" of UOC believers are dying in the war. The official accused the leadership of the ROC of failing to react to "the deaths of its faithful".
Answering the question of Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye and Melitopol about the persecution of UOC believers in Ukraine, Yelensky shifted attention to the situation in the temporarily occupied territories. According to him, it is there that the main problems with freedom of religion are found, where people are killed for their convictions, churches are closed, and priests, including those of the UOC, are put in prison.
Yelensky claims that the greatest persecution of the UOC comes from Russia, the Russian occupiers and the ROC leadership. This leadership, the official stated, has not expressed condolences "with a single word" to any UOC bishop or priest "when their faithful are dying by the tens and hundreds of thousands."
As the UOJ reported, the DESS head noted at a meeting in Zaporizhzhia that most of the churches in Ukraine destroyed by the war belong to the UOC.
