The demands of the Moscow Patriarchate closely coincide with the demands that Russia places on Ukraine, and the pro-Russian Church officials have taken a position of waiting and hoping for Ukraine's defeat in the war.
Metropolitan Yevstratiy (Zorya), the spokesman for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, stated this in the program "Time: Online" on "Channel 5" with host Maria Skibinska.
"The Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine is completely and categorically closed to any attempts at dialogue. They have set ultimatum conditions that are similar in nature to the conditions that Russia has for Ukraine. Russia also claims that they are ready to negotiate, but their conditions are Ukrainian capitulation. The conditions of the Moscow Patriarchate are the same: they only want to think about whether to engage in dialogue with us, and they oblige us to recognize that we are not a church and that they have a full spiritual monopoly over the territory of Ukraine. Obviously, these things are completely unacceptable," explained the Metropolitan.
"Allowing the continuation of spiritual occupation of Ukraine by the Russian Church, which is not so much a church as a department of religious affairs within the Kremlin administration, in the 10th year of the war and the 2nd year of the great war, is not something that anyone has the right to allow, neither from the standpoint of objective reality nor from the standpoint of the moral law," he argues.
Metropolitan Yevstratiy has expressed concern about the current position of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which can be put as 'Why would you have any claims against us? Why do you want anything from us? Leave us alone.' Meanwhile, this Kremlin-controlled branch has taken over the majority of Ukrainian shrines.
"Over the past 30-35 years, with the support of the state, including during the periods of the leadership of Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yanukovych, they have taken control of the vast majority of Ukraine's shrines. They have done so using political preferences," said Yevstratiy (Zorya).
He explained what Russian clergy are waiting for and what they expect.
"Their position of 'don't touch us' is a position of waiting. They hope that somehow everything will be resolved... that Ukraine will lose, that Russia will win, and that this victory will reflect positively on their position. This is similar to the occupied territories, where the Moscow Patriarchate is one hundred percent favored, and other religious communities do not have the normal opportunity to exist and live either underground or semi-underground, under constant threat of repression by the occupiers," explained the spokesperson of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.