Advisor to the Presidential Office on the UOC: "Unite with OCU or go under Phanar's omophorion"
Speaking in Brussels, Advisor to the Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Victoria Titarenko said that the Ukrainian authorities are not banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), but are offering its clergy and communities a choice of jurisdiction. She also criticized the World Council of Churches and the UN for their statements in defense of the UOC, calling them part of «propaganda narratives,» and accused UOC clerics of having ties to an «agent network.»
Titarenko, speaking at the forum «Resilient Europe: Forum for Countering Russian Disinformation and Propaganda, » said that the Ukrainian authorities, «despite everything, did not ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.» Instead, the UOC was offered a choice: «Please, either unite with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, or come under the omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarch, or remain in the status of unregistered communities,» the source quoted her as saying. At the same time, Titarenko did not specify the official mechanisms or cases when such proposals were made by the Ukrainian authorities.
The advisor to the deputy head of the OP also harshly criticized international organizations for their position on the UOC. Titarenko called the statements by the World Council of Churches and UN experts about «violations of the rights of believers» and «suppression of religious freedom» in Ukraine regarding the UOC, which is affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), «one of the propaganda narratives that is very sensitive to Europe and, ultimately, to the United States.» She emphasized that in this way «the idea is once again being put into the minds of Europeans that national security is not a reason to restrict the exercise of this freedom.»
Titarenko rejected such theses as false, arguing that national security may well serve as a basis for restricting certain freedoms. As part of her speech, she also expressed dissatisfaction with Belgium’s position on blocking the use of frozen Russian assets for reparations to Ukraine.
Titarenko paid special attention to the issue of cooperation with the aggressor. She assured the audience that «an entire agent network» of UOC clerics has been uncovered in Ukraine. Concluding this part of her speech, the advisor made a very categorical statement: «Perhaps not all in the UOC are criminals and collaborators, but if you are not a collaborator, you are from the UOC,» emphasized Victoria Titarenko, referring to the connection between collaboration and belonging to the UOC.
As reported earlier, representatives of various Orthodox churches and Christian communities organized a «Day of Action for Orthodox Christians and their Allies» in Washington, D.C., to draw attention to the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The event, which took place on December 16, 2025, on Capitol Hill, brought together about 200 participants. They held dozens of meetings with members of Congress and visited all the offices of the House of Representatives and the Senate, calling on lawmakers to protect the rights of believers.
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