Expert about "prayer" at Sophia of Kyiv: Zelensky changed position on OCU
Mikhail Pogrebinsky answered the question why the authorities refused the UOC but allowed the OCU to hold a thanksgiving service at the St. Sophia Cathedral.
Vladimir Zelensky changed his position regarding the interference in religious life, and now he is on the side of the OCU. Ukrainian political scientist, founder and director of the Kyiv Centre for Political Research and Conflictology Mikhail Pogrebinsky said this in a comment to the UOJ.
Answering the question why the authorities allowed the OCU to hold their "prayer service" at the St. Sophia of Kyiv but two months earlier they had refused the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the expert noted that "it is not surprising".
“In our country, the President started well – he moved away from interfering in religious life, and there was even an episode in Turkey when he made it clear. But a year later, he changed his position and is now actually pursuing a policy on this issue close to the one led by Poroshenko, maybe not so brazenly but a similar one.
He is on the side of Ukrainian nationalists, he is on the side of the OCU, which is non-canonical for the majority of the Orthodox world. And the relevant decisions are made by the Government – the Prime Minister and the humanitarian public are tough enemies of the canonical Orthodox Church, therefore, it is not surprising,” Mikhail Pogrebinsky said.
As reported, after the "thanksgiving prayer" at the St. Sophia of Kyiv, which took place on December 15, 2020, on the occasion of the 2nd anniversary of the formation of the OCU, Dumenko said that "the future of world Orthodoxy depends on the OCU".
Earlier, the Ministry of Culture, under the pretext of the coronavirus epidemic, refused the UOC to hold a service on the territory of the “Sophia of Kyiv” National Reserve.
