In an interview with foreign media, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told how Russia attempts to appropriate all Ukrainian victories and steal faith and culture. Zelensky called such actions part of information war and political kleptomania.
“My family was executed by the Nazis during the 100% occupation of Ukraine. One cannot say the same about Russia. Of course, Russia was at war. Of course, it was the army of the Soviet Union. There was the country – the Soviet Union. Everyone was at war, but some parts were completely occupied. We were being killed, shot, burned… Babyn Yar – it was here. I am simply surprised, firstly, by the superficial knowledge of some Russian media, and secondly, by the superficial knowledge of the entourage or the first person’s aidees. How do they even prepare this for him? Ridiculous. People say these things, propagandize them. It seems they were at war with Nazism, and we were Nazis… Who are we anyway? This is the main split – the information war, the information wiping of their feet on our country. Taking away all the victories Ukraine gained. Taking away culture, faith, literature, victory over Nazism is political kleptomania, there is no other definition,” said the president of Ukraine, commenting on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin’s statements about Ukraine being part of the “Russian World,” the President’s Office reports.
In the same interview, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Putin was raising the issue of church and language in order to drag with ending the war, instead letting it simmer. He also reacted to the ROCinU’s rally: “Old ladies and children sporting OPZZh (a pro-Russian political force – ed.) caps – something is wrong with that church, again.”
It should be recalled that on June 15, Kremlin puppets with the Myriany NGO rallied outside the President’s Office to complain about bills to bring ROCinU’s name in line with Ukraine’s legislation – to reveal affiliation with Moscow. They also spoke against the upcoming visit of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Believers of the Moscow Patriarchate brought to the rally boxes with signatures for repealing the ROCinU renaming bill. If the bill is passed, ROCinU will no longer be able to hide under the name “Ukrainian Orthodox Church”, instead having being obliged to indicate its affiliation with the governing center in Moscow. Of course, the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which decided to mobilize all its assets to oppose the bill, isn’t happy about this legislation.
Earlier we reported that the founder of the pro-Russian propaganda-ridden “Union of Orthodox Journalists” and “Union of Orthodox Lawyers”, millionaire Viktor Vyshnevetsky, stands behind the Myriany NGO. He also owns coal mines in the occupied Donbas and sponsors the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. According to certain reports, he owes his fortune to the son of Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s disgraced ex-leader.
A spokesman for the OCU, Archbishop Yevstratiy, earlier called the Myriany NGO a “Kremlin project,” alike the “Russian Orthodox Army.”
OCU Primate Metropolitan Epifaniy said that the ROC in Ukraine remains an illegitimate entity and cannot be called the “UOC”.
