"No Violence!": OCU Lobbyist Claims That UOC Churches Are Not Being Seized by Force

Oleksandr Sagan, a lobbyist for the OCU and head of the Department of Religious Studies at the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, stated that the forcible seizure of churches belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by OCU supporters is, in fact, a necessary measure, since UOC believers are unwilling to surrender their places of worship voluntarily. At the same time, Sagan claims that most such cases occur without conflict. He spoke about this in a comment tothe publication “Grunt.”

“The problem is that law enforcement agencies are sometimes inactive, and at some point the community’s patience runs out, so they forcibly cut the locks and enter their premises. And then this is portrayed as a violent seizure of the church. However, such conflict situations account for no more than 2%,” Sagan stated .

As a reminder, earlier , Serhiy Gorobtsov , head of the Donetsk Diocese of the OCU , issued a harsh statement in which he characterized the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) as an “enemy” and a “cancerous tumor” in the body of the state. In his view, achieving a final victory is impossible without completely eliminating the influence of this religious organization within the country.