A former adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine, Oleksiy Arestovich, called the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church initiated by the Ukrainian authorities “a manifestation of satanism”. He emphasized that the UOC’s position on the war was swift and unambiguous, and repression against the Church, especially in wartime, should be criminally punishable. He said in a comment on his Telegram channel.

“The Primate of the Church (His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphrius, – ed.) condemned specifically the Russian invasion. Directly condemned, in a situation of absolute uncertainty on February 24 immediately after the start of the war. No one knew yet if he would be questioned in an hour for his position. He did it”, – Arestovich said.

In addition, Aleksei Arestovich believes that from a political point of view, the persecution of the UOC is an illiterate strategy, for which sooner or later one will have to answer to the law.

“For me, first of all, this is an absolutely immoral process of persecution of the Church. Second, to me it is a manifestation of Satanism. If we move to the plane of theology, it is one of the many that we are dealing with in the modern world. And third, if we stay within the framework of political science and political discourse, this is a very illiterate strategy aimed at undermining the existing system in Ukraine. This is a work to split the country in wartime, which falls under specific articles of the criminal code”, – Zelensky’s former adviser said.

We shall remind you that earlier we reported that an MP of Ukraine from the Eurosolidarity party Mykola Knyazhytskyy told about how exactly the activity of parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should be banned. The MP believes that the UOC congregations should prove in court that they have no ties with the aggressor country.