Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Releases Report Exposing Ukrainian Regime’s Illegitimate Actions Against Ukrainian Orthodox Church

DECR – OCP News Service – 30/07/2023

Moscow – Russia: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation on July 25, 2023, published a report on “Illegal actions by the Kiev regime targeting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), its clergy and parishioners”. 

The topics of the report are: discriminatory laws and bills of Ukraine directed against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church; actions of Ukrainian special services and law enforcement agencies directed against the UOC; actions of Ukrainian local authorities and self-government bodies against the UOC; seizures of temples of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and illegal re-registration of communities; pressure from state and regional authorities on the largest monasteries of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church; rhetoric of hatred, unmotivated aggression and violence against the clergy and believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church; reaction of some international human rights organizations.

The report, in particular, notes that the Kyiv authorities have been actively pursuing a course in Ukraine for many years to eliminate the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, discriminate against its clergy, and persecute clergy and believing citizens.

“The events taking place in Ukraine fit into the overall picture of the systemic crisis of world Orthodoxy, caused by the policy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the United States and other Western countries, encouraging schismatics. The Kyiv authorities and the West are trying to separate the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, to destroy the spiritual closeness of the Orthodox believers of the two countries,” the document says.

“And the former authorities of Ukraine took various steps against the canonical church. Separate facts of oppression of the clergy and believers of the UOC were recorded as early as 2014 and earlier. Full-scale systemic pressure on canonical Orthodoxy in Ukraine began in 2018 and especially intensified in 2022-2023. It was initiated by the central leadership of Ukraine (president, government, National Security and Defense Council) and is currently being implemented in the legislative plane, in the actions of special services, at the levels of regional authorities and self-government bodies,” the report emphasizes.

Read the detailed report on the official website of the ministry here.

Source:

OCP News Service and DECR