The head of the OCU, Epiphany Dumenko, called “interference in the internal affairs of the church” the words of the head of the State Ethnic Policy Olena Bogdan that there are fewer monks in the OCU than in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra alone. He said this in a video interview with the Suspilne channel.

“It is not the business of officials to comment on such things,” Dumenko said in response to a journalist’s request to comment on the words of Elena Bogdan that there are fewer monks in the OCU than in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra alone.

“Because sometimes it even looks strange that a person who is a sociologist begins to evaluate who has more people, who has fewer people. Because this is already, to a certain extent, interference in the internal affairs of the church,” he added