When the US draws attention to the violation of freedom of conscience in Ukraine, we must listen, - Hovorun

The defrocked former cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill Govorun, said that if the United States draws attention to violations of religious freedom in Ukraine, it is necessary to listen to it, as such statements by the US establishment often have political overtones. Hovorun believes that the issue of protecting the rights of UOC believers in the United States is politically biased, so it may have unexpected consequences. Hovorun’s words are reported by Religion in Ukraine.

“When people in America speak or speak from America about the situation of freedom of conscience in Ukraine, it has certain political dimensions and connotations that need to be understood when we hear words of criticism or words of approval about the Ukrainian situation. We need to understand this American context and the driving forces behind these messages in the American environment,” — Hovorun said.

The former ROC cleric added that he expected a more severe reaction from the United States to the persecution of the UOC in Ukraine. However, the fact that the issue was considered even at the level of the State Department, in his opinion, indicates the political involvement of this topic in the United States and makes us be careful in implementing the state plan to eliminate the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

“Due to political bias, attention to the conflict between the OCU and the UOC in Ukraine is growing. On the one hand, the reactions of the new political establishment in Trump’s environment to this conflict between the OCU and the UOC are not as great as I expected. I thought that people in Trump’s environment who care about freedom of conscience would pay much more attention to this conflict. So far, I see first of all the efforts of Robert Amsterdam, who is trying to pedal this topic again and again, giving interviews to Tucker Carlson, just as at the Washington summit, he was the only one who spoke unequivocally with criticism of the Ukrainian government and criticism of Ukrainian policy towards the UOC. Others, even from Trump’s entourage, did not talk about this — at least I have not heard such critical speeches. But we have recently seen a State Department report that criticized our controversial law (No. 3894 — ed.) and criticized the policy of the Ukrainian state, as they say, gently but firmly. This is not as strong as I expected, but it is still criticism, although it is not always guided by subjective reality, but is inspired by political programs and the messages that are generated and circulated in Trump’s environment,” — he added.

Earlier, Cyril Hovorun criticized the co-chair of the National Federation of Young Republicans, Katherine Whiteford, for defending the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Govorun believes that Whiteford informs the entourage of US President Donald Trump that the UOC is “allegedly being persecuted.”