"The UOC was given a break": Political expert says authorities are thinking about banning canonical Church

Ukrainian political analyst Kostyantyn Bondarenko has expressed the opinion that the Ukrainian government has paused in the case of banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. According to the political scientist, the government is changing its view on this issue due to the coming to power of a new administration in the United States, which is closely monitoring developments regarding the UOC. He said this in an interview with blogger Alexander Shelest.

“I think now the authorities are trying to figure out what to do with the UOC, especially since unambiguous signals are coming from the United States. Vice President J.D. Vance has repeatedly spoken about the inadmissibility of persecuting any denomination, including the UOC. Therefore, I think that the UOC has now been given a break,” – the political analyst noted.

Bondarenko noted that although the seizures of UOC churches continue, the authorities do not take any centralized steps to ban the Church. In this regard, in his opinion, it can be concluded that the government is hesitating on this issue.

“Every day there are reports that churches and other places have been seized. But the wave of severe pressure that was last year, the year before that, is not observed now. I just think that many in the President’s office are thinking a little bit about whether it is worth it,” – added Bondarenko.

Earlier, we reported that the co-chair of the National Federation of Young Republicans, Katherine Whiteford, warned the persecutors of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the coming retribution if they do not repent and stop persecuting canonical Orthodoxy in Ukraine. Whiteford said that thanks to Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, the persecution of Christians, especially the UOC believers, will soon be stopped in the world.