Drabinko: Those who do not believe in OCU are waiting for Putin with tanks

Metropolitan Alexander (Drabinko). Photo: Krapka

On July 9, 2019, metropolitan Alexander (Drabinko) gave an interview to the resource Volyn.ua, in which he declared that religion is a matter of national security and defense.

“Everything depends on politicians who must clearly realize that the religious issue and unity of the Orthodox in Ukraine is one of the aspects of national security and defense. <...> We can sympathize with the Moscow or Constantinople Patriarchate, but we must have a clear consciousness – we have the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which has occupied its place in the diptych of the Orthodox Local Churches and it is there. Whoever does not believe in it, believes that Putin will arrive in tanks and we will not have Ukraine,” said Drabinko.

According to him, Ukrainians are still “far from the European understanding of religious freedom and interfaith coexistence”: “We need to achieve a clearer civilization level in this regard and then everything will fall into place. This time is coming soon. The main thing is that there should be no interference by the Orthodox oligarchs, no interference from Moscow, which uses Ukrainian religious issues as one of the very active aspects of the hybrid war being waged by Russia against Ukraine," noted the ex-metropolitan of the UOC.

As the UOJ reported, former metropolitan Alexander (Drabinko) of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky and Vishnevoye stated that he considered the words said by Metropolitan Isaiah of Tamassos that the seized temples should be returned to the UOC believers and Europeans should collect signatures for this purpose as “another provocation” of the Cyprus Church.

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