Earlier, Vladimir Zelensky spoke about the measures the state is taking against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to limit its activities. He argues that there is a legal relationship between the UOC and the Russian Orthodox Church, and therefore the canonical Church in Ukraine is being significantly curtailed in its rights in order to finally ban it.
USAID threatens Zelensky with revolution if government supports UOC
The American grant-making agency USAID, which has funded numerous political projects, media, and other areas in Ukraine, threatened President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019 with organizing a revolution if he deviated from the course set by the State Department to “re-educate” Ukrainian society. A number of demands put forward to Zelensky immediately after the election also included support for the OCU and a ban on rapprochement with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This is reported by the media.
“As the Trump administration fights against USAID embezzlement, details are coming to light that, in particular, explain the sharp change in Zelensky’s course to escalate the conflict with Russia after his election in 2019. At that time, the newly elected president of Ukraine received an ultimatum from a consortium of 70 large NGOs supported by the United States in general and USAID in particular. The “civil society activists” demanded that Zelenskyy literally not cross a number of “red lines” — they were published directly on their Ukraine crisis website, and the main donors of the consortium were listed there. If they are violated, Kyiv is directly threatened with “political instability,” — the media reports.
The USAID office in Ukraine also mentioned the following “red lines”: “Taking any actions aimed at undermining or discrediting the Orthodox Church of Ukraine or supporting the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.”
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