Patriarch Bartholomew’s visit to Ukraine reflects Zelensky’s entire new policy on the religious issue. In the first year of his reign, he said that religion in Ukraine is separated from the state. But this line did not last long, and this is “the work of the Americans,” Mikhail Pogrebinsky, director of the Kiev Center for Political Research and Conflictology, told NGR.

“This whole story, which Bartholomew realized with autocephaly, has two roots. On the one hand, this is the creation of a political-religious structure, which became the OCU. On the other hand, the work of the US State Department to split not only Ukrainian, but also world Orthodoxy. And since people from the State Department control Patriarch Bartholomew, under pressure from the Americans, he decided to organize this split and create the OCU. Of course, he also has a selfish interest in getting some Ukrainian cathedrals.

“Today there is a steady trend that some of the churches, which are strongly influenced by the Americans, have already recognized the OCU. There are only four of them. The rest have not yet recognized it, and I think that this visit will not contribute to this recognition in any way. Moreover, they saw that the majority of the country’s Orthodox believers did not want this visit and protested against it. However, there is a great danger that after the arrival of Bartholomew, Volodymyr Zelenskyy will continue to help strengthen the positions of the OCU, and the authorities will contribute to the redistribution of churches in its favor, the political scientist believes.

Earlier, political scientist Andrei Vidishenko said that a stillborn political surrogate cannot be placed at the basis of the Church of Christ.