US congresswoman accuses Zelensky of "war against his people because of their faith"

U.S. Congresswoman Anna Pauline Luna said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is waging a «war against his own people because of their faith» and promised to take action in response to the violent actions against parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). This statement followed the publication of a video message from UOC believers who report attempts to forcibly transfer their communities to the OCU and seize churches.

As reported by the UOJ in the United States, on January 8, 2026, in an exclusive commentary for the publication, Congresswoman Luna stressed that Zelensky’s policy had led to the persecution of believers. The reason for her statement was a video message from the UOC parishioners from the village of Kuzmin, Khmelnytsky region, which the lawmaker published on her social network X.

In this appeal, the believers spoke about an attempt to forcibly transfer their parish to the OCU, claiming that local authorities were preparing to seize the church, which was built by the parishioners themselves. They noted that on December 21, 2025, unauthorized persons organized a fictitious meeting at which they voted to transfer the community. «We are ordinary law-abiding people who have no one else to turn to for protection. We ask you to do everything possible to prevent our church from being taken away from us,» they said in their appeal.

«I was deeply touched and saddened by the appeal of Ukrainian Christians. Zelensky has decided to wage war against his own people for their faith,» said Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna. She also emphasized that the illegal seizure of UOC churches must be stopped, noting in her message US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the US Department of State.

Earlier, we reported that important negotiations on the protection of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) took place in the US Congress: Katherine Whiteford, co-chair of the National Federation of Young Republicans of the United States and director of government relations of the Society of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, met with a member of the US House of Representatives Riley Moore. The main topic of discussion was the ongoing persecution of Orthodox Christians and violations of the rights of believers of the canonical Church in the context of the conflict in Ukraine.