Oleg Gavrish, chief consultant to the Office of the President’s chief of staff, said that, in his opinion, “the UOC is now in a rather difficult situation”. About this he wrote on his own page in Facebook.

“A significant number of its parishioners and, I am sure, a certain number of bishops and priests hold pro-Ukrainian views: they serve in the army, work for the state or for the economy of Ukraine. They have not fled, they have stood up courageously in defense of the country and are doing their duty. There are many patriots, pro-Ukrainian-minded people in the UOC,” the official said.

He added that for these people “to leave the Church means to directly violate the New Testament.”

“In this regard, of course, everything that is happening to the UOC now hurts pro-Ukrainian parishioners,” Gavrish said.

According to the official, “in order to first of all support Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, as well as its pro-Ukrainian parishioners,” the Church should “publicly condemn Vladimir Putin and the entire Russian government for the unleashed war in the most brutal way.” In addition, the Church should “publicly and unequivocally condemn the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church, including its head, for supporting the war.”

Oleg Gavrish advised the hierarchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to “ban all hierarchs and clergymen who have been found guilty of relations with Russia” and “all those who are under investigation or serving a sentence”.

In addition, in his opinion, the UOC should start negotiations with the OCU on unification. “But personally, I believe that unification here should be unification, not absorption. Why? If only because the takeover will not be perceived by either the priests or the episcopate of the UOC,” he noted.

Gavrish is convinced that both sides should take the initiative to create a “Ukrainian Patriarchate” because “our country deserves its own Orthodox Patriarch,” “especially since Romania and Serbia have one.” “Why does it still not exist in Ukraine?” – the official noted.

“The UOC needs to dot all the i’s by finally breaking off relations with the MP. If this is not done, the situation will only worsen. But, most importantly, it will be a betrayal of that part of the flock that really loves Ukraine. And suffers from everything that is happening now in the UOC,” Gavrish emphasized.