Religious scholar Viktor Yelensky: The Ukrainian state cannot but interfere in internal church affairs

On October 31, 2022, religious scholar Viktor Yelensky, in an interview with Obozrevatel, stated that the state’s policy in the field of church-state relations should be “stronger and more active.”

“For example, in the 1990s it was possible to say that the state should not interfere in internal church affairs, it should give the church the opportunity to be a church. But when another state interferes in internal church affairs, when it tries to manipulate the church in Ukraine, then the Ukrainian state cannot be equidistant, cannot but interfere in this process. Of course, we are not talking about what to read at the liturgy. But it is the business of the state to at least support the Ukrainian Church,” Yelensky believes.

Also, the former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada is convinced that “the business of the state is to promote and help the church establish itself in the foreign policy arena, because no one else will do this.”