Zelensky shifts responsibility for UOC ban to All-Ukrainian Council of Churches

In an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan, Volodymyr Zelenskyy shifted the responsibility for the ban on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations. He claims that the entire population was in favor of banning the UOC, and the decision, in particular, to exclude the Church from the AUCCRO, was made by the country’s religious organizations “without any influence.” The interview was published on Morgan’s YouTube channel.

“First of all, I would like to say that Ukraine has a Council of Churches. This is the largest institution in Europe… And the Moscow Patriarchate was also a member of the Council of Churches. […] The fact is that the entire population is against the Moscow Patriarchate, no matter how it may sound. And the fact is that no one closed anything — it was the Council of Churches, and they discussed and decided among themselves that they excluded the Moscow Patriarchate from the Council of Churches. This was done only by the denominations. They do it on their own without any influence. So, religious institutions made this decision,” — Volodymyr Zelenskyy assured.

Earlier, the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (AUCCRO) published a joint statement following a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The AUCCRO stated that they fully support Zelensky’s initiative to ban the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by adopting the scandalous Law No. 3894.