OCU spokesman calls statements about larger number of UOC parishioners "false propaganda"

In an interview with former Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, the spokesman for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), Yevstratiy Zoria, rejected claims that more people attend the churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) than those of the OCU. According to him, such statements are part of «false propaganda» aimed at promoting certain narratives to the outside world. He said this in an interview with former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.

Zoria emphasized that the UOC, in his opinion, is a minority in Ukraine, and no more than 4-5% of Ukrainians consider themselves to be part of it. He also said that many believers who were previously under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate «vote with their feet» and move to the OCU. At the same time, the spokesman for the OCU called those who do not want to voluntarily transfer to the OCU part of the «totalitarian system» from which the Ukrainian state must «liberate» the UOC believers.

«We must institutionally free them from direct influence, brainwashing and control by Moscow to give them the opportunity to recover,» Zoria said, without specifying how this influence is exercised.

Earlier, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich), the Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, raised acute issues related to the ongoing persecution of the UOC, noting that the process of its de facto ban does not stop, although it contradicts the law. The Metropolitan emphasized that despite the administrative seizures of churches and restrictions on its activities, the Church retains its strength due to its deep roots in the people, and the seized shrines often remain empty.