Ministry of Culture calls for blocking media resources working in defense of UOC

Maksym Vikhrov, an analyst at the Center for Strategic Studies under the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, said it is necessary to block media resources of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that cover events from a non-governmental perspective. In his opinion, the state cannot oppose them with arguments and must resort to prohibitive measures, such as sanctions and arrests, to combat the alleged information war.

The statement by the Ministry of Culture was made at a meeting at the Media Center Ukraine titled “(Un)holy war. How the Moscow Patriarchate supports Kremlin agents in Ukraine”. Vikhrov accused the UOC resources of using “dehumanizing rhetoric ” against the OCU and Ukraine in general, as well as attempts to “demoralize and destabilize Ukrainians from within.”

The analyst argues that such media deliberately provoke conflicts to “create all this ‘dvizh'”. At the same time, according to the source, he does not consider the option that illegal actions against the UOC communities by supporters of the OCU could have occurred in reality. He characterized the situation as an information war, which the authorities are losing, since they are allegedly opposed by “people in uniform.”

“The fact is that it is impossible to defeat them simply with arguments,” Vikhrov emphasized. He named forceful actions by the state as the only effective method of counteraction: “sanctions, blocking, arrests, and so on.” According to him, Ukraine is already using these methods, and the Europeans are “pulling up to it” to “block the channels of these lies, manipulations, and provocations.”

As reported, on September 12, 2024, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine published an order according to which the information website Raskolam.net and other online media supporting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were re-blocked on the territory of Ukraine. The decision was made in response to a request from the Security Service of Ukraine and will remain in effect until the end of martial law in the country.