In Ukraine, the Moscow-led Church applies hybrid tactics and pretends to be a “victim,” while in fact being an aggressor. This tactic was earlier invented by Russia, says Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zorya), Spokesman for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
In a post on social media, entitled “Orwellian Patriarchate,” he pointed out that when the ROCinU needs to pose as a victim, they do not shy away from accepting that they are a minority in Ukraine.
The hybrid “victim” tactics, invented by the Kremlin, have found their supporters in the ROC branch in Ukraine. Applying the same tools, Moscow Patriarchate supporters are putting pressure on communities that want to get rid of the Russian yoke, but at the same time the ROCinU is loudly claiming a status of a “victim of persecution,” said Archbishop Yevstratiy.
He noted that the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine are rather comfortable with identifying themselves with the Russian Church and the Moscow Patriarchate – both around the worl and domestically – but when the state requires through the law to bring their official name in line with reality, they decry it is “pressure and persecution.”
“To refer to the Moscow Patriarchate as ‘Moscow Patriarchate’ turns out to be ‘persecution.’ This is how it is here, too – for years, the ROCinU has been using the thesis that they are supposedly ‘the largest Church in Ukraine.’ But when they have to pretend to be a ‘victim,’ they are immediately ready to recognize themselves as a minority,” the OCU spokesman said, drawing parallels with the ambiguities described in Orwell’s 1984 novel.
