Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, Deputy Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC, noted that “by a possible ban on the UOC, certain forces are artificially driving our state into a dead end.” He wrote about this on his own Telegram channel.

“Let’s say they ban it, and then what? Social tension, constant conflicts on religious grounds, the world’s excessive attention to violations of religious freedom, good material for Russian propaganda, the growth of distrust in the authorities among a certain part of the population, etc.,” he noted. .

Father Nikolai is convinced that “our people will not go to the OCU anyway, the clergy will not go. The church in the person of the people will not go anywhere. Let’s say they remove it from registration, there will be no legal status, but the physical status will remain. will only complicate the problem, not solve it. And yet all this may not be if you do not go that way.

“Who benefits from this? The OCU and the “EU” Poroshenko. Objectively, there is no – not beneficial for the state. All this talk about threats to national security from the UOC as a structure is tales and slander, and the artificial formation of the image of the enemy from the Church. How much the UOC helps the front, how much its believers are at war, there are many official statements and texts from the official structures of the Church in defense and support of the country. If there are violations by individuals, then there is personal responsibility for this,” the priest said.

He is sure that it would be better for the state not to take this step.

“These are steps that lay problems for years to come and solve nothing. And then the state will have to somehow get out of this, somehow save face in front of the people, somehow solve new problems that will arise from this wrong step, it will be necessary to take a step back. Therefore, it is better not to take the wrong step forward,” Archpriest Nikolai stressed.