Deputy Chairman of Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Culture and Spirituality: It is not ROC that Ukraine has to do with but Russian foreign intelligence

It is not the Russian Orthodox Church which we have to oppose. Ukraine deals with the nuclear power represented by the Russian Federation, with its diplomacy, its foreign intelligence, with all its power that tried to disrupt the acquisition of the Tomos. Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Culture and Spirituality Viktor Yelensky said this on air of 5 TV-Channel.

“The struggle is now waged to eliminate these achievements. The struggle is waged to persuade the capital cities of the Orthodox world not to recognize the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the people are searched who could provide ammunition for Russian propaganda ... Kyiv Patriarchate was abolished, we saw him (Filaret - Ed.) sign a resolution on the dissolution of the UOC-KP,” said Yelensky.

He has also noted that the Tomos that was granted to the OCU does not differ from those given to other Churches, in particular, to the Russian Church: “A similar Charter was received by the way, also by the Moscow Patriarchs. And all these talks that the Tomos is not true, that it means subordination by the Greeks, the subordination to Constantinople ... The Moscow Charter says “let it respect and know the head in the Orthodox world of the Patriarch of Constantinople.”

He added: "What is untrue about this Tomos? The fact that it does not want to recognize Putin? In the history of the Russian state there were two rulers who did not recognize the authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople: Stalin and Putin, the great experts in canons. I'm sorry that Patrairch Emeritus is on the other side of these barricades, and yet, I think that he will change his position,” said the MP.