The MP says that the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church - Patriarch Kirill, the RF special services and Russian diplomacy are directly involved in the destabilization of the situation between Orthodox believers.
Russian Federation benefits from provoking conflicts between the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv and Moscow Patriarchate aimed at discrediting Ukraine in the West.
Victor Yelenskyy, member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Culture and Spirituality, MP of the People's Front faction told it in an interview to Obozrevatel.
The MP says that the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church - Patriarch Kirill, the RF special services and Russian diplomacy are directly involved in the destabilization of the situation between Orthodox believers.
“The church issue is a very important component of the war waged by Russia against Ukraine, and this issue was exploited quite actively before the aggression burst out in 2014, and now it is an issue of special concern. Many years ago it was ordered to collect any facts through the church channel, testifying to the oppression of the faithful of the UOC (MP) in order to use it to discredit Ukraine in the West. This is being done continuously, and since 2014, this activity has been steadily increasing,” says Yelenskyy.
According to the people's electorate, there is no hostility between the faithful of the UOC (MP), there are even cases where the faithful of the Moscow Patriarchate changed their jurisdiction and went to Kyiv.
“There is no hostility, it is an attempt to use the UOC-MP, which is under the control of the Moscow Patriarchate, and in turn, under the Kremlin’s control, an attempt to use this Church to destabilize the situation in Ukraine,” the MP said.
On Saturday, deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine Viktor Kononenko said at a briefing that Russian intelligence agencies are planning measures to intensify the conflict between the UOC-KP and the UOC-MP. According to him, Russians are going to use religious organizations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) as a means of provocations.