Viktor Yanukovych is confident that the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was a mistake and a decision aimed at division.
Viktor Yanukovych is confident that the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was a mistake and a decision aimed at division.
He said this during a press conference in the Russian city of Rostov, according to TSN.
Yanukovych believes that the state leadership did not have the right to interfere in church affairs.
“It was by no means allowed for the State to interfere in matters of religion. The church has always been separated from the state. None of the presidents had not allowed up till now to intervene in church affairs. Everything that happened in the UOC was directed at separation, hostility and hatred. Those people who assumed this responsibility did a great sin. It was prohibited to do this,” he said.
Metropolitan Oleksandr (Drabynko), former secretary to Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), disclosed details of criminal cases concerning the dismissal of the head of the UOC from his post, and also stated that he personally informed the church authority of the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church on the circumstances of pressure on Metropolitan Volodymyr government during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych.