DISINFO: Kyiv regime carries out a US-mandated anti-Orthodox policy
SUMMARY
The Kyiv regime has turned its religious policy into a tool to promote neo-Nazi practices. Ukrainian President Zelensky, appointed by Washington, carries out an anti-Orthodox policy at the behest of the Americans to attack Russia.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives stating that the West and the US support an allegedly Nazi regime in Kyiv and portraying Ukraine as an enemy of the Orthodox Church. With the first narrative, the Kremlin aims to de-legitimise Western support for Ukraine.
There is no religious persecution in Ukraine. Freedom of religion is enshrined in its constitution. In late 2022, the Ukrainian government announced a law banning churches affiliated with Russia for their anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russia activities. Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies had conducted a series of investigations related to parishes which Kyiv had suspected of taking orders from Moscow. This move was mostly aimed at stopping the activities of the so-called Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate [UOC-MP] in Ukraine. This religious organisation is considered a key influence tool for Moscow in the country. Its leadership voiced its full support for Russia's unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine, including siding closely with Putin, blessing soldiers and Russian guns and offering the church's support.
The Ukrainian government does not plan to ban Orthodoxy. The UOC-MP’s parishes are free to switch to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine which received the Tomos of Autocephaly in January 2019.
Also Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically-elected president and parliament.
The West supports Ukraine with military and financial aid for the country’s efficient self-defence, in accordance with the UN Charter Article 51, to stop Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
The accusation of Nazism is one of the favourite techniques of pro-Kremlin outlets. Read our article Twelve-myths-about-Russia's war in Ukraine exposed.
Read similar cases claiming that UN publishes a report on Kyiv’s discrimination against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, that Zelenskyy is the Nazi supreme in Kyiv, that the Kyiv regime is destroying the canonical Orthodox church, and that Zelenskyy's anti-Orthodox church policy is guided by the US.