Current state of Orthodox media in Ukraine: Everything is ready for pogrom?
Yesterday, Ukrainian authorities blocked all Orthodox websites covering the life of the UOC or related to church topics. What awaits the UOC and Orthodox Christians?
On December 16, 2023, the State Special Communications and Information Protection Service of Ukraine issued an order to block a number of resources in Ukraine, including the website of the Union of Orthodox Journalists. This was done following a request from the Security Service of Ukraine.
As of yesterday, websites covering the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, such as the Synodal Information and Educational Department of the UOC (news.church.ua), the Union of Orthodox Journalists (spzh.media), "Orthodox Life" (pravlife.org), and "No to schisms" (raskolam.net) have stopped opening in Ukraine.
Stage 1: Blocking and disruption of the Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ)
The reasons for these sites becoming unavailable to residents of Ukraine were not specified. Earlier, MP Artem Dmytruk addressed the Security Service of Ukraine with a request to explain why the authorities had blocked the UOJ. He was told that the Security Service of Ukraine "within the framework of its assigned tasks" monitors the media "to identify threats to Ukraine's national security in the information sphere, as well as to counter special information operations against Ukraine aimed at undermining the constitutional order, violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and exacerbating the socio-political and socio-economic situation". However, no specific facts of how the UOJ "undermines the constitutional order of Ukraine" or how it "violates the territorial integrity" of our state were provided. Instead of providing evidence of the UOJ's unlawful activities, on March 12, 2024, law enforcement officers simply staged a pogrom of the "Union of Orthodox Journalists" news agency, arresting three of its employees and conducting searches of another dozen people involved in the UOJ's work.
Almost immediately after this pogrom, both Ukrainian current politicians and former politicians, as well as some political analysts, unanimously stated that the situation with the UOJ speaks only of one thing – the authorities are preparing to ban the UOC, and they do not need anyone who can tell the world about this lawlessness.
At the same time, political analyst Kost Bondarenko added that "Yermak and his comrades decided to show the deputies that they are not going to bargain or give up and conducted a demonstrative pogrom among the 'Union of Orthodox Journalists' to communicate as follows: this is how we will deal with everyone who tries to interfere with the authorities in cleaning up the Church -– regardless of the status of a deputy or journalist identification. Yesterday's searches and detentions are a signal to the deputies: 'Are you still persistent? Then we are coming to you!'"
This means that the blocking of all more or less noticeable Orthodox resources in Ukraine speaks only of one thing: the authorities will take the next step in the form of banning the Church very soon.
Stage 2: Finalizing the preparation of the law on banning the Church
Indeed, a day before the Orthodox resources were blocked, it became known that the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy had finalized the government bill 'On Amendments to Some Laws of Ukraine on the Activities of Religious Organizations in Ukraine' (8371).
Now, this document, as believed in the Verkhovna Rada, is ready for the second reading. More than that, it is ready to be voted on.
Yes, not all deputies want to do this. Many do not want to, because they fear God, some because they fear public condemnation, even more because they fear sanctions, repeatedly promised by the UOC lawyer Robert Amsterdam. And although officially representatives of the Ukrainian political establishment say that the threat of sanctions is nonsense, unofficially, they worry about it, as evidenced by MP Iryna Herashchenko's demand to impose sanctions on Amsterdam himself.
In turn, Amsterdam stated that this hysteria demonstrates that a country that bans political parties, restricts dissenting media, postpones elections, and seeks to ban the largest confessional church in the country, has lost the ability to understand political accountability, adding that "lawmakers must understand that they cannot destroy a 1,000-year-old church in silence."
But the authorities decided not to stop there and move forward. Because, as Mykyta Poturaev said, "No one will stop the idea whose time has come."
Stage 3: Blocking everyone who can tell the truth
When in 1917 Lenin and his comrades were making the revolution, they understood that one of the first buildings to be seized was not the imperial palace, but the buildings of the post office, printing houses, and publications. Whoever controls the information transmitted to the masses, controls, even if only for a while, these very masses.
Roughly the same thing is happening now when Ukrainian authorities block Orthodox websites. Moreover, it is not only about those sites that dared to make critical statements against the anti-church actions of the authorities, but also those that tried to avoid 'sharp corners' as much as possible.
For example, the website of the Synodal Information and Educational Department tried to distance itself as much as possible not only from sharp statements, but also from any publications that had too resonant a character. Scroll through the feed of this site and see for yourself that the main part of the publications is the lives of saints, the services of His Beatitude, congratulations from hierarchs on anniversaries, and information about the assistance of the UOC to soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In other words, it's just an official statement. Even when, seemingly, silence was not an option, for example, when on March 12, journalists of the UOJ (colleagues and associates of those working on the UOC information department website) were arrested, we did not see a word about it. But even such a cautious attitude towards events in Ukraine did not save the "synodalites", news.church.ua website.
"Pravlife" in this sense is somewhat similar to "synodalites", to the effect that the information there was also selective, often tailored to 'not escalate', except for a few publications of a rather critical nature.
Against this backdrop stands the website "Raskolam.net", where both news publications and analytics critically examined the processes unfolding in the Ukrainian religious field.
But, most importantly: neither the Synodal Department website, nor Pravlife, nor Raskolam.net, nor the UOJ, in any single article, ever justified Russian aggression or wrote anything that could even indirectly suggest violations of Ukrainian legislation. So why were they blocked? The answer is simple, as an old fable goes: "You are guilty simply because I feel like eating." In allegorical terms: enemies are designated, and the people demand a 'spectacle'. In other words, the UOC will be banned.
Stage 4: Banning the UOC
If someone hoped that it would be possible to 'loop around' somehow, that the authorities would not dare to take that 'final' step, then they were very mistaken. The blocking of Orthodox resources showed: there will be no stopping. Why now? Because there used to be many 'opposing' factors: a lack of parliamentary votes, fear of 'Western partners', a desire to look 'better' in the eyes of the civilized world, which reacts very sensitively to violations of freedom of speech. But the most important thing is different: the Church must be banned as close to May 21 as possible. The reason is to drown out the information wave. Mark our words that the adoption of bill 8371 will be presented as the 'most important achievement in the recent history of Ukraine', as the 'second baptism', and 'a final goodbye' to Russia.
The same Mykyta Poturaev directly states that '"when Kremlin lobbyists claim that because of this law, Ukraine will be left without international assistance, it's a bluff."
We are not Kremlin lobbyists, so we won't make such statements. But whether it's a bluff or not – time will tell.
The only thing we know for sure is that Amsterdam's words about sanctions are not a bluff, and the ban on the Church is not a bluff. So, the faithful of the UOC must be prepared to live and pray 'outside the law'. This situation is not new to the Church, but it is new to us. Will we be able to preserve our faith and remain Christians? Only time will tell.
