Ambassador of Ukraine to the Vatican Andriy Yurash said on Espresso that although the official name of the UOC is “Ukrainian Orthodox Church”, but if we take into account the understanding of realities, then the existing tradition of using the term UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate fully corresponds to the essence of the structure in question.”

In his opinion, the society of Ukraine “absolutely clearly responded to all the challenges, including those in the church plane, because against the backdrop of the ongoing war, any things that are connected with the fact that someone somehow and continues to bear, relatively speaking, a pro-Russian or frankly Russian identity.”

“Be that as it may, if it weren’t hidden in a variety of wrappers, the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate de facto still remains the most mass medium in which absolutely obvious markers of Russian identity are present in Ukrainian society,” Andriy Yurash said.

He also believes that “the desire of many communities at different levels to change their affiliation” arises because there is allegedly “rejection” of the UOC in society.

“Therefore, there is an obvious reaction of the authorities to the absolutely unconstructive position of the church leadership, one part of which is completely silent, does not want to somehow react, respond, and the other part, represented by Metropolitan Pavel, continues to allow itself in the harshest and most offensive, most intolerant expressions talk about the leadership of the state, and about any opponents,” Yurash said.