U.P.Ts.M.P. SYNOD ACCUSES POROSHENKO AND P.Ts.U. FOR WAR, NOT PUTIN
Hierarchs of the UPTsMP (Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate) blamed the government of the time of Petro Poroshenko and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PTsU) for actions that led to the armed invasion of Ukraine by Russia. They consider the activity of the PTsU "destructive." This is said in a statement by the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UPTs) of 12 May 2022.
"Thus, a group of Ukrainian people's deputies, based on contrived and knowingly false accusations, submitted for consideration by the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada draft laws for a prohibition of the activity of our church. In addition, in various regions of Ukraine there have occurred incidents of the adoption by local administrative bodies of illegal decisions banning or restricting the activity of local religious parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. With tacit consent or with the active intervention of local authorities, seizures of church buildings of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have occurred. All these incidents were the consequence of the mistaken religious policy of the times of President P.A. Poroshenko and of the destructive ideology of the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
"We are sure that it was such activity of the previous government and of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine that became one of the causes of the armed invasion into Ukraine. We think that the criminal actions directed against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have signs of subversive and sabotage activity and are the consequence of the inaction of the Ukrainian State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, which is responsible for regulating inter-religious relations in Ukraine. We consider attempts to ban the activity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to be impermissible. Any decisions about banning our church and limiting the rights of its believers are crimes and they violate the constitution of Ukraine. Such actions may be categorized as none other than deeds of national suicide since, after all, they are being aimed against millions of citizens of Ukraine, who belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and who today are defending on various levels—at the front and in the rear—our fatherland," the statement of the UPTsMP says. (tr. by PDS, posted 13 May 2022)
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