Maria Zakharova: Kyiv authorities are waging a blasphemous war against the UOC

On June 4, 2025, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded to a question about violations of the rights of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in Ukraine. According to her, Russia has been drawing international attention to the persecution of canonical Orthodoxy for many years. This was reported on the “Russian People’s Line” platform.

Zakharova recalled that the Russian Foreign Ministry published two reports — in 2023 and 2025 — detailing the “illegal actions of the Kyiv regime against the UOC, its clergy and parishioners.” The 2024 human rights report includes a dedicated section on the persecution of believers.

“These documents thoroughly examine Ukraine’s discriminatory laws, the unlawful actions of security services and law enforcement, the seizure of churches, forced re-registration of communities, and acts of hatred and violence against the UOC clergy and faithful,” Zakharova said.

She added that “pressure on the Church began long before 2022” and is connected to the creation of a “pseudo-church structure — the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which is effectively affiliated with the state.”

“Between 2019 and 2021, about 500 UOC parishes were unlawfully transferred to the OCU, and 144 churches were seized,” Zakharova stated.

She characterized the situation not only as persecution of the canonical Church but as “an attempt to destroy Orthodoxy in Ukraine.” She also noted that such facts are often ignored by the West.

The Russian diplomat said that Moscow would continue to raise this issue on international platforms — at the UN, OSCE, through conferences and special reports.

“We are confident that the Kyiv authorities will not succeed in destroying canonical Orthodoxy, which is followed by the majority of Ukraine’s population,” Zakharova stated.

She concluded by calling on international organizations “to condemn the blasphemous war of the Zelensky regime against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”

It is also worth noting that Maria Zakharova commented on the forceful seizure of the Near Caves of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, which took place with the support of Ukrainian law enforcement and OCU representatives.