KYIV. UkraineGate.10 . December .2022 | War News .
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the Russian Orthodox Church had “betrayed God.” He said this in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter .
Citation
“The Russian Orthodox Church has betrayed God. Everything they do is against the will of God. I don’t think it’s either morally or politically acceptable to be associated with this institution,” Kuleba said.
While Kuleba noted that adherents of religion have the right to freedom of religion and to practice their faith at will, he said Ukrainian state would use “all the legal means” available to it to suppress without hesitation any religious groups “who want to destroy Ukraine, statehood.”
According to Kuleba, a number of Orthodox priests and some bishops blessed Russia’s military efforts, covered spies and distributed materials favorable to Russia.
“In times of war, when a nation is fighting for its survival, it is unacceptable,” he said.
Supplement
Since the end of November, the SSU has been conducting searches in the dioceses of the UOC-MP in Ukraine. One of the first inspections took place in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
In early December, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came into force the decision of the National Security and Defense Council to ban religious organizations influenced by Russia in Ukraine.
The NSDC instructed the government to submit to the Verkhovna Rada a bill banning religious organizations affiliated with centers of influence in Russia, and the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience – to ensure a religious examination of the charter on the management of the UOC for communication with the Moscow Patriarchate.
Source: Ukrgate
