MP from the "European Solidarity" faction, Iryna Herashchenko, has stated that the Office of the President conducted negotiations with representatives of the Phanar to obtain a new Tomos for the association of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP).
Herashchenko wrote about this in her blog on Ukrayinska Pravda, according to Politerno.
According to the MP, in 2019, the new government blocked the process of transitioning parishes to the OCU.
"It was not only due to the dislike for Poroshenko and their unpleasant associations with the Tomos. Advocates of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) came to Bankova. The then First Deputy Head of the Office of the President, a member of the Servant of the People political party, Serhiy Trofimov, who was responsible for regional policy, was loyal to the ROC and even served under Metropolitan Onufriy."
Herashchenko also refers to Ivan Bakanov, the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), as a parishioner of the ROC.
"Until recently, they discussed absurd scenarios for a new Tomos at Bankova. Supposedly, they needed to unite the OCU and the ROC (UOC) into a new UOC and obtain a Tomos with Zelensky's signature and name. The Office of the President even sent messengers to the Ecumenical Patriarch to probe the ground," she wrote.
In the politician's opinion, the authorities still saw the ROC as their electoral niche, which is why they did not want to have a final confrontation with this Church.