French journalist: OCU's patriotism is more visual, while the UOC's is real
"Hooligans that had attacked the church in the time of the seizures were wrapped in the Ukrainian flag," noted Flavius Mihăieș.
The author of the article "Ukraine's Two Wars" in The American Conservative, French independent journalist Flavius Mihăieș, in his comments to American lawyer representing the UOC, Robert Amsterdam, shared that he had conducted many interviews with UOC parishioners who had returned home on leave from the front lines.
In his opinion, contrary to the OCU's claim to be a patriotic organization, unlike the UOC, the UOC is as much patriotic asi the OCU.
"The UOC parishioners were fighting and dying on the front lines. Over and over, I interviewed the parishioners who were either on leave from the front line or mothers whose son was buried the next day literally and men who had been doing multiple tours on the front line."
The journalist concluded that "more visual patriotism, perhaps, in the OCU, with flags in the churches, and in Kyiv’s cathedral, they displayed military brigade flags lined up inside the church."
However, "hooligans that had attacked the church in the time of the seizures were wrapped in the Ukrainian flag, the pictures they showed me. But again, the UOC were just as patriotic in the fighting and the dying, but also in the recognition in two churches in Khmelnytskyi and Chernihiv the head priest unfurled the Ukrainian flag form a military brigade that was signed like signing the flags in recognition of the support that their parish had provided to the men on the front line, food, gears, you name it," shared Flavius Mihăieș.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with the journalist @flaviusoxford, who has reported on the persecution and suffering of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church which he has witnessed first hand.
— Robert Amsterdam (@robertamsterdam) October 18, 2024
I cannot overstate how important it is hear these kinds of testimonies, especially… pic.twitter.com/voY1lgNjqJ
As reported by the UOJ, the French journalist spoke about the seizures of UOC churches in Ukraine.
