The head of the UGCC, Svyatoslav Shevchuk, said that “if the UOC is banned, then we will give this church the palm of martyrdom. We will give them the opportunity to really go into a deaf opposition and become those who will then claim authenticity.” He said this in an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda.

“I don’t want to give prescriptions for our legislators. Why? Because we were once banned too. We survived the underground. Moreover, the very fact that we were a martyr’s church that did not become a collaborator church with the Soviet government saved our moral authority. It is important to understand that the prohibition of the church does not mean the cessation of its existence. Why? Because the Church is not only a religious structure, not some kind of organization that has a charter, a leader, a religious center. I recently told one legislator: “If you want to perpetuate the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, ban it,” said the head of the UGCC.

According to him, on the other hand, the state has the right to take care of its national security. And therefore, if there are traitors among Catholics, or Protestants, or Jews, or Muslims, or Orthodox who are dangerous to the state, in particular during martial law, they must be identified and, observing all laws, take the following steps.

“There is no need to be persecuted for belonging to some kind of church structure, no. But for crimes against our state – here we are all equal. Therefore, perhaps we need to put the same question in a different way and understand that in fact we are not talking about limiting religious freedom to anyone. The point is that our northern neighbor, who is killing us today, could not use any of the churches for his geopolitical purposes,” Svyatoslav Shevchuk said.