Media: OCU ordered an information campaign to discredit Phanar hierarchs

Illustrative photo. Source: df.news

On September 23, a media outlet close to Phanar published insider information regarding an order allegedly placed by interested parties from the OCU Metropolis with affiliated media figures to launch an information campaign aimed at discrediting hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the OCU who "are already working or are prepared to work on the issue of unity in Ukrainian Orthodoxy."

"The motivation of the organizers is quite simple – to discredit in the eyes of Ukrainian society and government those hierarchs who hold their own positions and do not support strategies and methods that only intensify divisions," the report states.

The "stakeholders" from the OCU Metropolis are accused in the publication of wanting to monopolize "the sole correctness and infallibility" in creating strategies that, according to the journalists, "are more designed to serve the personal interests of the authors of these strategies."

"It is also known that media figures with previous experience in carrying out similar campaigns have been engaged to execute this order. They are actively seeking reasons to launch an information attack," the report adds, warning both the executors and organizers against implementing these plans.

"If they do not cease their actions, the editorial team is ready to publish their names," the outlet concludes.

As previously reported by the UOJ, Andriy Kovalev, former press secretary of the head of the UOC-KP and now a lobbyist and cleric of the OCU, expressed concern that violating the letter or spirit of the Tomos could lead to its revocation by Dumenko's structure. Kovalev noted that the OCU does not seek the unification of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, which is insisted upon by Constantinople.

Read also

Interview with His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas, First Hierarch of ROCOR

The Southern Clergy Retreat and the Growth of Orthodoxy in the South

Christian Orthodox Coalition Calls for Action Amid Syrian Crisis

March 19, 2025 – The Christian Orthodox Coalition in the United States has issued a powerful statement condemning the ongoing persecution of Orthodox Christians in war-torn Syria.