The UOC is the last independent voice not controlled by Zelensky — Robert Amsterdam

International attorney for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Robert Amsterdam, has once again spoken out in defense of the canonical Church, stating that only a country deeply entrenched in corruption and impunity could seek to ban a religious institution with a thousand-year history. The statement was reported by the media outlet Pershyi Kozatskyi.

“Only a country mired in corruption and impunity could ban a thousand-year-old Church,” the lawyer emphasized.

He also drew a parallel between the repressive actions against the UOC and the weakening of anti-corruption institutions in Ukraine. According to Amsterdam, the same rationale is being used both to pressure the Church and to undermine oversight of the authorities.

“The same pretext was used to weaken anti-corruption oversight. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the last independent voice not controlled by President Zelensky,” said Robert Amsterdam.

It is also worth noting that Ukrainian religious scholar and expert of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), Andriy Smirnov, believes that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will not be able to request autocephaly from the Moscow Patriarchate while the war continues. Furthermore, he claims that the UOC leadership will not declare autocephaly unilaterally, and in his opinion, the Russian Orthodox Church would oppose such an initiative.