Amsterdam: OCU and persecution of UOC was foisted by the U.S. government
An American lawyer has claimed that the idea to destroy the UOC originated with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt.
On August 5, 2025, at a meeting with the New York Young Republicans, Robert Amsterdam, an American attorney representing the UOC, accused the U.S. authorities of initiating the creation of the OCU and organizing persecution of the canonical UOC. He made this statement during his address to an American audience, according to an exclusive UOJ video report from the United States.
According to Amsterdam, the idea to destroy the UOC in order to “weaken Russia” was proposed by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt back in 2014, during the events of the Euromaidan. “Based on information we have – I cannot vouch for it, but it comes from reliable sources – it was Nuland and Pyatt who proposed the idea of destroying the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” the lawyer said.
Amsterdam claims that Pyatt was tasked with engaging Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to transfer control over the UOC from Moscow to Constantinople. He noted a “strange coincidence”: after his work in Ukraine, Pyatt was reassigned as U.S. Ambassador to Greece, where he continued preparing the ground for the creation of the new church structure – the OCU.
The lawyer stressed that, in fact, the UOC had already been autonomous since the 1990s and was self-governing. The only unresolved matter was its canonical status and the preservation of spiritual ties with Moscow, as required by Church law, which had no significance for the United State.
Amsterdam stated that in 2018–2019 a deal was struck with Patriarch Bartholomew, allegedly involving “millions of dollars.” He emphasized, however, that he could not speak to the exact amounts.
He noted that Secretary of State Pompeo’s original idea did not envision the complete exclusion of the UOC from religious life, but rather the creation of a new church that would unite all “patriotic Ukrainians.” However, with the outbreak of war and the loss of Donbas – a traditional UOC stronghold – Zelensky was forced to “reestablish his electoral base” and became an ultranationalist.
“Ukrainian ultranationalists are a very creepy bunch. A lot of them trace their relationship to a guy named Stepan Bandera,” Amsterdam said, adding that much of Ukraine’s current rhetoric revolves around “religious and linguistic cleansing.” He stressed that the term “religious cleansing” was used by Ukrainian MP Poturaev, and that this was captured on video.
Speaking of his first visit to the U.S. State Department, Amsterdam said that American officials were convinced the UOC was controlled by Russia. “They were such diehard advocates of the new church. They were so convinced our church was Russia-controlled. It was frightening. Absolutely frightening. Religion never entered into us. Faith or worship never entered into it at all. And I said that to them. I said, 'How do you think you can deal with the basic mechanics of human life? Freedom of religion is central to us all. How is it the State Department's job to change people's faith?'” the lawyer recounted.
Earlier, the UOJ reported that in 2018 Geoffrey Pyatt discussed the creation of an autocephalous Ukrainian Church with Archbishop Ieronymos, persuading the head of the Church of Greece that “the Orthodox Church can make a decisive contribution to strengthening peace and reconciliation among peoples.” In 2019, U.S. Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt welcomed the decision of the head of the Church of Greece to recognize the OCU.
