MFA – UN: You should only see Russia's crimes against religion. Not ours

UN. Photo: Glavcom

It reads the following: “The Foreign Ministry's commentary on the false accusations of the UN about Ukraine's alleged restriction of religious freedoms.”

The main theses with our comments are:

1. The Foreign Ministry “rejects the UN conclusions” regarding the law on banning the UOC.

2. The law does not ban anything, but only “does not allow subordination” of religious organisations of Ukraine to centres in the Russian Federation”.

Sounds beautiful, but here's the problem – there are dozens of statements by MPs who directly say that this is exactly the law to ban the UOC. It turns out that for the internal consumer we talk about the fight against “Moscow priests”, but for the external consumer we say that there is no such fight. The Foreign Ministry also forgot to say that if such “subordination” is discovered, the organisation will be banned. And the scheme is as follows:

- First, DESS conducts an “expert examination” of the documents of the aggressor country (the Statute of the Russian Orthodox Church), after which it concludes that the UOC is subordinate to the Russian Church. At the same time, the provisions of the UOC’s Statute about its non-subordination to Moscow are ignored.

- The next stage – eparchies and communities of the UOC will be forced to break this non-existent connection.

- If you do not break this non-existent ties, you will be banned by court.

3. The Foreign Ministry reminded the UN that the Russian Federation uses religion in war.

No one argues, but what does the UOC and the law on its ban have to do with it?

4. Ukraine must protect citizens “from the destructive influence of the aggressor state, including with the use of religious organisations, which in Russia are fused with the state”.

The same question: what does the UOC have to do with it? Where is the evidence that there was such influence through it? There is not and cannot be any.

5. Russia commits religious crimes.

The same question: what does the UOC have to do with it?

6. The Foreign Ministry expects that the UN will “record Russian crimes against Ukrainian believers, religious communities and leaders, and church property”.

The final phrase is obviously missing here – and the UN will not record “Ukrainian” crimes against Ukrainian believers.

Our Foreign Ministry is counting VERY much on this.

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