"It's a lie": Zelensky speaks out on UOC ban

Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave an interview to British journalist Piers Morgan, in which, among other things, he also spoke about the ban on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Zelenskyy rejected accusations that he was passing dictatorial laws, one of which was to ban the UOC. In his opinion, Tucker Carlson, who allegedly spreads these “Russian narratives,” should stop “licking Putin’s ass.” The interview was published on Morgan’s YouTube channel.

“It’s all a lie. This is Putin’s narrative. Putin has a narrative about the Moscow Patriarchate, the Russian Church. Putin has a narrative about elections, about my illegitimacy, about dictatorship. This is coming from a man who has been in power for 30 years, a bloody dictator, a murderer who violated the territorial integrity of Ukraine and beyond. And as for the denominations, as for the elections, all this is Putin’s narrative,” – Zelensky said.

In addition, Zelensky spoke in a rude manner about American journalist Tucker Carlson, who devoted his stories to the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Ukrainian government. The head of state said that Carlson was spreading Russian narratives, urging the journalist to “stop licking Putin’s ass.”

“If you pretend to be a journalist, then be objective. Stop licking Russia’s ass and spreading its propaganda. It’s strange to see how some people despise their own democratic values by justifying a dictator who is waging a war of aggression. I think he needs to understand more deeply what is happening in Ukraine, stop working for Putin, stop licking his ass. Honestly,” – Zelensky added.

Earlier, a well-known American journalist Tucker Carlson drew the attention of American parliamentarians to the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church taking place in Ukraine. In particular, the journalist addressed a statement to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the US Parliament, Mike Johnson, demanding a response to the blatant violations of the rights of believers in Ukraine.