Amsterdam: Saint Zelensky is starting to show a few cracks in the visage
The international lawyer drew attention to the fact that in the United States, the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church remains almost entirely unknown.
In an interview with journalist Tucker Carlson, international lawyer Robert Amsterdam stated that the topic of persecution against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) is virtually absent from American media discourse. According to him, despite a noticeable shift in Western media attitudes toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the issue of pressure on believers, church seizures, and the actions of Ukrainian security services against the UOC continues to be completely suppressed.
“Saint Zelensky is starting to show a few cracks in the visage, but there's still nothing about this ongoing torture and use of secret police to destroy the Church,” Amsterdam said.
The lawyer noted that most Americans, including journalists, knew little about Zelensky before the conflict began, yet from the first weeks of the war the media constructed an image around him that allowed no criticism. This, he explained, led to a deliberate neglect of information about violations of believers’ rights in Ukraine.
Amsterdam pointed out that instances of violence during church seizures, pressure on clergy, and the involvement of radical groups wearing "swastika" remain almost entirely unknown to the American public.
The interview also touched on the rise of radical nationalist organizations, which, according to Amsterdam, have gained considerable power and influence in Ukraine since 2014. He observed that major Western publications wrote about the growing far-right movements in Ukraine before the war, but after 2022 these topics vanished from the public arena.
During the conversation, Tucker Carlson directly asked why American media “defend the real radicals.” Amsterdam replied that Western elites have made a political bet on the Ukrainian president and are now unwilling to acknowledge the problematic aspects of Ukraine’s domestic policy – including religious repression.
Amsterdam emphasized that American media still offer neither systematic analysis nor even basic coverage of the situation with the UOC, despite hundreds of cases of pressure, criminal prosecutions of clergy, forced “transfers” of parishes, and restrictions on worship.
According to him, when it comes to Ukraine, Western institutions are willing “to double down” in order to preserve their political course – even if it means ignoring the violation of the rights of millions of believers.
As previously reported by the UOJ, Amsterdam had earlier condemned the mobilization of a hierarch of the UOC, calling it “a disgrace for the hypocrites who deny the persecution of the Church.”
