Poroshenko calls decision to recognize UOC (MP) as affiliated with ROC belated but correct
MP, leader of the European Solidarity party Petro Poroshenko called the order of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience on recognizing the Kyiv Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) as affiliated with a foreign religious organization, whose activities are prohibited in Ukraine, the Russian Orthodox Church, belated.
"More than five years ago, we demanded a simple and obvious solution from the government: to call things by their proper names. The UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate must be recognized for what it really is: a structure of the Russian Orthodox Church that acts in the interests of the aggressor country. Today, the state has officially declared: the UOC (MP) is affiliated with the ROC, whose activities are banned in Ukraine. This decision is belated, but correct," Poroshenko wrote on Facebook.
According to him, over the past five years, the Moscow Patriarchate has remained an important instrument of influence for the Russian Federation in Ukraine. "More than once, MP priests have been exposed for leaking coordinates for strikes, working for the FSB, spreading Kremlin propaganda and justifying aggression. This was part of the hybrid war against Ukraine. But now the state has all the legal grounds to act. We must facilitate and support all communities that choose the Ukrainian church, but at the same time the state must protect believers from the influence of the FSB cell in Ukraine," Poroshenko believes.