Alvian Tkhelidze, a member of the Council of Priests-Bloggers at the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and the Media, said on the News Front programme ‘Mnenie’ that the repression of UOC priests in Ukraine was ‘an attempt to physically destroy’ those who refused to support the ideology of the current government.
‘When the special military operation began, and immediately after the Maidan, priests of the UOC began to be pushed out of the military structure, explaining that these priests were allegedly agents of the Kremlin, and if they were close to the military, they would engage in espionage,’ said Alvian Tkhelidze.
According to the expert, due to a shortage of personnel in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Kiev needs church ministers as military personnel.
The clergyman noted that such church repression has not been observed in any of the European Union countries, which modern Ukraine aspires to join, but most countries of the Collective West ‘pretend that nothing is happening.’
Earlier, most parishes of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine were deprived of the right to exempt priests from mobilisation.
