Dmytruk: ROC has no influence on UOC, we have no communication

Artem Dmytruk. Photo: Telegraf

MP Artem Dmytruk in an interview with Telegraf said that the UOC on the territory of Ukraine is the only independent Church.

“The UOC has received its independence since 1991. And this is very important. Today the UOC on the territory of Ukraine is the only independent Church. If we look, for example, at the religious organisation of the OCU, its governing centre is in Istanbul. And the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is independent. And our leadership is and always has been in Kyiv,” he said.

Dmytruk added that there are attempts to artificially show the UOC as a church dependent on the ROC. While his baptism certificate says that he was baptised in the UOC, without mentioning the Moscow Patriarchate or the Russian Orthodox Church.

The MP stressed that the Primate of the UOC was elected and is supported exclusively by the UOC clergy.

“It is necessary to look at what is happening now. How many politicians, even current ones, who are in the walls of the Verkhovna Rada today, had close ties with the Russian Federation? Practically all of them. Even the top leadership,” he said.

When asked by a journalist whether the ROC has influence on the Primate of the UOC or on the bishops, the MP said that there is no such influence.

“Null. Not that there is not even influence, we have no communication. Time will show whether it is good or bad. But there is not even communication. Today every bishop condemned the actions of Patriarch Kirill,” stressed the MP and subdeacon of the UOC.

As the UOJ reported, MP Artem Dmytruk said that the Church would not create tense situations in the country even in response to the persecution.

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