The words of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about “grandmothers in OPFL caps” had nothing to do with the protest of the UOC believers, Deputy Head of the President’s Office Mikhail Podolyak said in a commentary to Interfax-Ukraine, OPFL being the Ukrainian opposition party.

“It’s time to stop some politicians and the media from actively speculating on religion. At least it will be ethical. At the maximum, it will be professional,” an adviser to the head of the President’s Office commented on an opposition rally in the government quarter near a mass prayer service for believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

“We have another example of creating a different reality or trying to create a scandal out of the blue. In this case, on a religious theme. After a mass prayer service of the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in another location of the government quarter, a small “protest” action of the OPSZ political party took place,” he said.

“Of course, the president’s words had not the slightest relation to the event of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and even more so to the feelings and emotions of believers. This must be clearly and unequivocally emphasized. Not the slightest complaints about the UOC prayer service and the categorical rejection of the staged “yellow caps””, Podolyak said.