Major General of the Security Service of Ukraine: The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is incapable of creating a protest movement

Major General Viktor Yagun of the Security Service of Ukraine believes that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is incapable of creating a protest movement that could arise against the backdrop of the state’s attempts to ban the UOC. The security service official is convinced that although the UOC has significant numerical potential, it lacks people who could lead anti-government protests. He said this in a comment to the Espreso TV channel.

“To say that they will be able to build a whole protest movement—I don’t believe it. Because they can be very quickly disorganized and put in their place, and they know this very well. There are no other opportunities in Russia to bring people out onto the streets. Because the problems we have are clearly understood by citizens, and the certain category of people who would be willing to take part in some kind of protest is so small that they will definitely not make a difference,” – Yagun said.

Earlier, the head of the State Historical and Architectural Reserve “Ancient Kyiv” (part of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, ed.) Roman Malenkov stated that in the near future, the “reserve” will begin work on the expropriation of the Pokrovsky and Florovsky monasteries of the UOC, as well as the Holy Cross and Ilyinsky churches, which are architectural monuments. Malenkov claims that it will be possible to take these religious buildings away from the Church thanks to a decision by the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, which “found” signs of the UOC’s affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate.