US Assistant Secretary of State for 2017-2021 Robert Destro, who is one of the key members of the team of United States presidential candidate Donald Trump, criticized the Ukrainian authorities’ attempts to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Destro called such actions of the authorities “a travesty of democracy” and added that the adoption of the bill № 8371 would be a direct violation of the rights of believers. He said in a commentary to the British publication Express.

“8371 is a law that imposes collective punishment on innocent parishioners, priests and parish communities whose only ‘crime’ is that they practice the faith they have known since childhood. Only totalitarians declare their citizens traitors because they refuse to accept state control over their religious beliefs, practices, associations or leaders”, – said Robert Destro.

We will remind, earlier we reported that representatives of the Senate of the United States of America criticized the Government of Ukraine for persecution and attempts 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.