The dioceses of the UOC of Khmelnytskyi region issued appeals in which they stated that there were no results of the “memorandum” signed earlier with the authorities and the OCU, which was supposed to prevent further acts of aggression against the Church on the territory of the region. They point out that despite the signed document, the aggression against the UOC has not only not decreased, but on the contrary, has become even stronger. We would like to remind you that earlier we gave an example of similar attempts of agreements in Rivne region, indicating that in the case of Khmelnytskyi region everything will be exactly the same.

In reality, however, everything is banally simple. The reason for the sudden outburst of aggression and retreat from previous agreements was the procession from Kamyanets-Podilskyi to Pochaev Lavra. The special services, which, in fact, initiate all these pseudo-voting and “transitions” of the UOC churches to the OCU, execute the corresponding order of the authorities, in the context of which, the UOC should look like a marginal Church of the minority. The annual procession from Kamyanets to Pochaev does not fit into this concept.

We are aware that the Khmelnitskyi “memorandum” was signed with the proviso that the UOC will not raise a “wave”, and certainly not to violate the decision of the regional council to ban such a mass event as the procession. However, neither the authorities nor the ministers persistently ignore the potential for self-organization of the UOC faithful in this matter, thinking that the ruling bishops can influence people. Even if all three dioceses issued an order banning the procession, the faithful people would be spurred on even more by such a fact. In this regard, it made no sense for the bishops to set themselves up in front of their own people, realizing perfectly well that any prohibition on their part would be taken in the face and ignored.

Thus, due to the lack of a firm position of the church leadership, a situation of Orthodox haidamatchina is actually developing, when believing people become simply uncontrollable by any orders of the clergy, especially those that are fundamentally unacceptable to them. In turn, the unwillingness of the authorities to obey Newton’s third law, in its own right, forms another layer of opposition in the state.