Representatives of the United States Senate have criticized the Ukrainian government for persecuting and attempting to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Senate is convinced that the pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a violation of elementary principles of democracy. The Wall Street Journal reports that.

“When American leaders present this as a war for democracy and human rights, it would be good if the recipient of aid would be a little more attentive to human rights, including religious freedoms. Ukraine is doing very bad things, priests are being investigated and church property is being confiscated”, – said Republican Senator Jay Vance.

In turn, Republican Senator Rand Paul says Ukrainians “have invaded churches and are arresting priests,” and Republican Paul Gosar said Kiev has “banned Ukraine’s oldest and largest denomination.”

In addition, former Capitol Hill staffer and current Ukraine Freedom Project president Stephen Moore visited about a hundred Republican Party offices between September and January. According to him, about a third expressed concern that Zelensky was “persecuting Ukrainian Christians.”

It is worth noting that this is not the first time that representatives of the US political establishment have shown concern about the attempts by the Ukrainian authorities to ban the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. We recently reported that Robert Destro, Assistant Secretary of State of the United States in 2017-2021, who is one of the key members of the team of presidential candidate Donald Trump, believes that the bill No. 8371 aimed at banning the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a direct violation of freedom of conscience and persecution of believers of the “wrong confession”.