Russian intelligence services, with the help of prankers, made a provocation attempt in a telephone conversation the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Epifaniy.
“The Kremlin's intelligence services, pretending to be a member of the European Parliament, tried to provoke the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in a telephone conversation. (...) On December 21, 2018, a call was made on behalf of David McAllister, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament. Gradually, the Primate was involved in answering provocative questions, in particular about the “seizure of the Lavra”, the support of certain candidates in the elections, the attitude towards the “rights of homosexuals”, etc.” describes the call a subsequent Facebook post of the OCU, according to INTERFAX-Ukraine.
The report states that in the conversation, Metropolitan Epifaniy expressed the same thoughts as in his public speeches, in particular that the Ukrainian Church opposes violence and incitement to hostility, is open to dialogue; “Capturing the Lavra” is inadmissible, and such talks are aimed at provoking tension in the society. In addition, it was pointed out that the Church identifies same-sex relationships as a sin. The Church also does not interfere in the political process and does not indicate to believers which candidates or parties should be supported.
During the conversation, Metropolitan Epifaniy had a feeling that this conversation was a provocation and he stopped it.
The OCU stressed that in case of failure of the Russian agents to receive favorable response, the record can be cut with the selection of individual words and phrases. Therefore, if there are some pieces of the conversations published in the media, the public should take into account the peculiarities of the situation and should not trust such information.