“It is very easy to blame priests for something they could not be guilty of. The church was not the reason for either the occupation of Crimea or the conflict in Donbass. And in no way could it interfere with this, ”says the priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the well-known winner of the “Voice of the Country” contest, Archpriest Alexander Klimenko. He answered stereotypical questions about the position of the UOC in an interview with Ukrainian Pravda.

“It’s about the acuteness of your political views. The way you do it. Therefore, I say it again – such a public person as Metropolitan Arseny realized what exactly he was doing. Moreover, he had this right to speak as the greatest benefactor of his region – refugees settled in the territory of the Svyatogorsk Lavra in thousands with hundreds of children, ”Archpriest Alexander reminded the journalist.

To the suggestion that, “according to some sources,” there were also “militants” settled there, the priest replied: “Again, we only have photos of children. Every time, when information appeared in social networks, in the media that someone was hiding militants or weapons, the information service of the diocese said – go to any temple. Nobody did that. Because this fake was written only in order to write this fake.”

According to him, the UOC is for Ukraine, “and has always been for it. Perhaps, in the end, it will turn out that she was the only one in Ukraine. Trust me. For this you have to live another 10-20 years.”