The head of the Ukrainian State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, Viktor Yelenskyy, has praised the Baltic states for putting pressure on the Russian Orthodox Church on their territories and called on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to break off relations with the Russian Orthodox Church. He said on the air of “Public Radio”.

“Latvia declared by law the autocephaly of its Church. Estonia expelled Bishop Eugene Reshetnikov from the country. This will be followed by steps from other countries. In particular, Sweden has already denied funding to the Russian Church,” – Elensky said.

In addition, Elensky believes that due to the increased pressure on the Russian Church in the world, the UOC has a very convenient and timely moment to completely sever ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.

“The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate continues to be “de jure” part of the Russian Church, so now is a very opportune moment to finally withdraw from its membership. This will largely change the attitude of Ukrainian society towards it,” – Viktor Yelensky commented.

We would like to point out that earlier we reported that Viktor Yelenskyy continues to develop the topic of the bill No. 8371 aimed at banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The official claims that if the Ukrainian Orthodox Church fulfills all its requirements, there will be no claims against it.