Russian military propagandist Alexander Kots, who accompanies the invaders’ army in Ukraine and hates all “non-Russians”, decided to interview the UOC priest of the Moscow Patriarchate, the rector of St. Michael’s Church in Borodianka, Father Viktor. He kindly agreed to help a Russian military propagandist who supports the Russian army, the aggressors who have been shelling civilians. The UOC-MP cleric has supported Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, justifying it in the same way as Moscow Patriarch Kirill: by claiming that Russia attacked Ukraine to protect Donbas from “Western values” and holding “gay parades.”
The Spiritual Front of Ukraine has analyzed an interview published by Komsomolskaya Pravda, to draw certain conclusions.
First of all, a bit about Russian propagandist Alexander Kots. He has gained notoriety for his talentless fakes about Ukraine and also for traveling along with the occupiers (behind their backs), describing Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine in a positive light and boasting of being as close as 70 kilometers away from Kyiv”.
Further, propagandist Kots reports that he is in Borodianka, where the Russian invaders have been firing on residential neighborhoods and civilians living there, creating a humanitarian catastrophe and killing civilians. As a result of Russia’s atrocities, about 100 people may remain under the rubble of destroyed houses in Borodianka, Kyiv region, Viktoria Ruban, a spokeswoman for the emergency service, has told Radio Svoboda on March 4.
But let’s get back to the Russian propagandist. This is the most interesting thing. Alexander Kots tells the story of how a local priest with the UOC-MP, Father Viktor, took to a hospital a wounded local woman, while the Ukrainian Army was allegedly not allowing an ambulance to get to the site from Kyiv, saying it was dangerous to drive to Borodianka. Kots deliberately failed to mention how the two OCU priests had already been shot dead by the Russians, but no one is hurting the UOC-MP clerics, the loyal ones.
It should be recalled that on March 5, the occupiers killed an OCU church rector in the village of Yasnohorodka, Kyiv region, Fr. Rostislav Dudarenko. A few days earlier, they killed OCU Chaplain Maksym Kozachyn, who served in the village of Rozvazhiv. The occupiers shot the priest as he was driving his way out of the village. His body could not be retrieved from the site for several days as the occupiers were killing everyone approaching the area. However, the brave Ukrainians did manage to get the priest’s body and eventually bury it.
Also, Russian troops took hostage OCU priest Vasyl Vyrozub. In addition, a clergyman with the Chernihiv eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church died in Russian shelling.
But what did Father Viktor, a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, tell a propagandist affiliated with the Russian army, who came along with the occupiers shelling peaceful towns and villages across Ukraine? Did he condemn the invasion? Did he point out that killing people and occupying other countries is a sin? No, he didn’t! He practically recited word for word the messages spread by Moscow Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev), who recently attempted to justify Russia’s war against Ukraine by not accepting the idea of “gay parades” in Donbas.
“War is grief. And these are sins. Homosexuals are holding parades in Kyiv. On what lewd literature our generation is being brought up. Meanwhile, we are constantly scolded as a Moscow church, being called names, that we’re Muscovites, although the church loves everyone. Christ commanded to love not only friends but also foes,” said Viktor, a priest with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
In other words, this “priest” sees no sin in the fact that the Russian Federation is killing Ukrainians, and justifies and supports the Russian attack on Ukraine by saying that Ukrainians have fallen into sin and are holding gay parades in Kyiv. He believes that Russia can justifiably attack any country where gay parades are held. Incidentally, the ROC itself has a massive gay lobby. Putin would also need to conduct a special operation there and kill all gays among the ROC then, following this logic. But the UOC-MP priest is silent about it. After all, this is the Moscow Patriarchate, not gay parades in Kyiv, which bother Father Viktor so much that he is willing to support the murder of Ukrainians over such grave “crimes.”
Further, the priest stated that, had the invaders come in 2014, they would have been greeted with flowers. Think about it. According to the UOC-MP priest, the occupiers would have been greeted with flowers… This comment has signs of treason in it. After Borodianka’s liberation from the Russian occupiers, Father Viktor should be at least questioned by security officials.
“Do the people of Ukraine support you (meaning the occupying forces, ed.)?” I will tell you this: in 2014 you would have been greeted with flowers. Yanukovych let us all down by fleeing to Russia. And for these eight years, we have seen how people were being brought up here,” said the UOC-MP priest.
Really, how were our people brought up here? They were brought up nicely and patriotically, with love to Ukraine. Such stance will, of course, irritate the UOC-MP. People are consciously defending their land from the Moscow invasion. Even unarmed civilians take to the streets, rallying against the invaders, hoisting Ukrainian flags in occupied Kherson, Oleshky, Enerhodar, and other settlements. Because it’s all Ukraine and the Russian invaders and murderers are not welcome there. The minister of the Moscow Patriarchate does not like to see these developments, such exaltation and patriotic upbringing, and he is dissatisfied with the way people have been “educated” here. In his opinion, they should have been educated in all traditions of the “Russian measure” and in love with the Russian Federation. That is, despite the occupation of Crimea and the creation of terrorist republics and the killing of our military and civilians, we Ukrainians still had to respect and reconcile Russians with Russia? So they had to raise us?
Then the UOC-MP priest legitimizes the crimes committed by Russia, saying that the Ukrainian Army consists of Nazis, because they allegedly greet each other “Heil Hitler”. By the way, Putin also claimed that he was conducting a “special operation on de-Nazification” – allegedly purging Ukraine of Nazis. Thus, the UOC-MP priest echoed the theses voiced by Putin and Kirill (Gundyaev) and supported their “arguments” for the war against Ukraine.
“We, the believers, have heard how the Ukrainian Army soldiers greet each other ‘Heil Hitler’. Is this normal?” the UOC-MP priest said indignantly.
Then the propagandist of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Kotz asks whether it is possible to “cure” this “living incision”. I mean the separation of Ukraine from Russia, which began in 2014.
The UOC-MP priest also considers it a very bad thing that Ukrainians share a negative attitude towards Russia, suggesting that it is necessary to repent. He probably means Ukrainians. That is, the Russians are killing Ukrainians, but it’s they, the Ukrainians, who need to repent. I wonder why? Father Viktor did not care (or didn’t want) to call the Russian Federation an aggressor and murderer, nor did he think of saying that the whole Russian army should repent for the murders and occupation. He could not even utter the words already voiced by UOC-MP leader Onufriy. The latter asked Putin to end the war and mentioned the sin of Cain, who killed his brother Abel.
Instead, the UOC-MP priest says the following: “God can do anything. The only way out is repentance. And you can’t get angry. Getting angry leads to destruction. Destruction of each other…
Then Alexander Kots launches another batch of lies and propaganda about “marauders wielding automatic rifles in Kyiv” and “the Russian military saving a woman with a chest wound.” The only thing missing is a “crucified boy” (an old-school propaganda fake story). Father Viktor submissively and unequivocally supports these fakes and even confirms that “they had the same things happen” in Borodianka and that the armed locals were engaged in looting. “Yes, we had the same thing here, but now they have hidden their weapons and turned into virtuous citizens. But we all know them, they’re all locals,” says Father Viktor.
At the end of all these lies, the priest, who calls himself a servant of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, Father Viktor, even blessed the military propagandist and told him: “May God be with you.”
Next, the propagandist Alexander Kots said he is happy to see a destroyed monument of the fallen heroes of the Anti-Terrorist Operation / Joint Forces Operation. He says that the monument has already been “de-Nazified” and that “there is no place for such monuments in the new Ukraine.”
Conclusions
Thus, the Borodianka-based UOC-MP cleric in does not hesitate to offer an interview to a propagandist with the Russian Army, who travels around and covers the atrocities of the invading forces on our Ukrainian land.
Father Viktor, a priest with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, fails to condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
The UOC-MP priest does not touch on the Russian atrocities targeting the civilian population, in particular the barbaric shelling of Borodianka (which killed hundreds). Probably, the UOC-MP priest considers such crimes to be the norm, not a sin.
The UOC-MP priest actually supports the occupiers, saying that back in 2014, they would have allegedly been greeted with flowers.
The cleric echoes the narratives of Moscow Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) to justify the war against Ukraine. In particular, he reiterates Gundyaev’s thesis that Russia is attacking Ukraine because “gay parades” are held in Ukraine and that “Donbas does not approve of that.” So Russia allegedly protects Donbas from “gays”.
At the end of the interview, the UOC-MP priest praised the Russian propagandist and blessed his work.
In general, the UOC-MP priest acted as a “sacralizer” of the atrocities committed by Russia against Ukraine, failed to support Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself from unprovoked Russian aggression, on the contrary, justifying Russian invasion of Ukraine. He completely shares the messages spread by the Russian propaganda, including that circulated by “military correspondent” Alexander Kots, in his efforts to portray Russia as “victim” and Ukraine – as “aggressor”, which is completely false.
The UOC-MP priest considers it wrong that Ukrainians share a negative attitude towards Russia, suggesting that Ukrainians must repent of this “sin”. He claims that the war was sent upon Ukraine for its “sins”.
