UOC clergy as “cannon fodder”?
When it comes to granting draft deferments for clergy, the government deems the statutes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church invalid. But when it comes to inspecting for alleged ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, those same statutes are considered perfectly valid.
On a single day – June 11 – the Territorial Recruitment Centers (TRCs) abducted two UOC clergymen to send them to the front:
In Kremenets, Archimandrite Paphnutius, abbot of the Holy Spirit Hermitage of the Pochaiv Lavra
In the village of Viliya, Fr. Oleksandr, rector of the Church of St. Paraskeva.
The cynicism is staggering: on the very same day, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal instructed the head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (Viktor Yelensky) to “accelerate deferments” for clergy. He stated that the government was supposedly “taking steps toward the churches and continuing to support religious organizations.”
Just days earlier, the State Service published a list of 7,726 religious organizations eligible for deferment. The 9,222 UOC communities located in government-controlled territory were excluded.
Why? Because their statutes allegedly fail to comply with the 2018 Law No. 2662-VIII “On Renaming Religious Organizations.”
And yet, those same “noncompliant” statutes are being used as grounds to investigate the UOC for affiliation with Moscow under the 2024 Law No. 3894.
In other words, when it comes to deferment, UOC statutes are invalid – but when it comes to persecution, they’re good enough.
A perfect illustration of the old saying: “The law is like a wagon shaft – it turns wherever you bend it.”
But what’s even more astonishing is this: for years, state propaganda has declared that UOC clergy and bishops are collaborators, FSB agents, Moscow's minions.
Yelensky himself has stated that he sees the UOC as a “threat to national security.”
That’s why they’re barred from serving as chaplains in the Armed Forces – so they don’t “corrupt” the soldiers.
And yet, somehow, there’s no concern about “national security” when these same alleged “FSB agents” are forcibly sent to the front with weapons in hand.
Everyone knows full well that the priesthood forbids a clergyman from bearing arms. And even if they are forced to take a weapon, they will not shoot –let alone kill.
All they can do at the front… is die.
OCU propagandist Tetiana Derkach summed up this absurdity in a single phrase:
“They’re not allowed into the army as chaplains, but as cannon fodder – they must be there.”
And in this one sentence lies the essence of how today’s government views the clergy of the canonical Church:
Join the OCU – or be sent to die.
