We will remind you that recently, the head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), Viktor Yelensky, announced that his agency is preparing a lawsuit to terminate the registration of the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The official stated that the DESS is thus responding to the UOC’s statement refusing to comply with the state’s requirements set forth in anti-church law No. 3894.
DESS will be held accountable for attempting to legalize documents of a Russian organization banned in Ukraine, - Metropolitan Clement
The head of the Synodal Information and Education Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Clement (Vecheria), said that representatives of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience should be held accountable for using documents from the Russian Orthodox Church, which is banned in Ukraine, in their research on the UOC. He said this in a comment to the publication Strana.
«The Kyiv Metropolis has repeatedly stated that what DESS officials called an expert analysis of the UOC charter is not in fact such. There is reason to believe that the authors of this conclusion will not only be unable to prove its legitimacy, but will also be required to answer for attempting to legalize the documents of a Russian organization banned in Ukraine (i.e., the Russian Orthodox Church — Ed.). After all, it was in this strange and criminal way that the DESS came up with repressions against the UOC and millions of its believers,» — said Metropolitan Clement.
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