Incidentally, 2019 is the same year that Zelensky came to power. Just months after his election, a group called the Ukraine Crisis Media Center—which was funded by USAID—“warned” Zelensky that any failure to promote the OCU and to combat the UOC “will inevitably lead to political instability.” The subtext was crystal clear: If Zelensky failed support the schismatic church and suppress the canonical church, he too would fall victim to regime change, just like Yanukovych.

Since 2022, the Ukrainian government has used Russia’s “special military operation” as an excuse to intensify its persecution of the UOC, which it has since rebranded as the “Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.” Hundreds of church buildings have been seized by police officers acting on the Zelensky Administration’s orders. Bishops have been imprisoned. Priests have been dragged out into the streets and beaten nearly to death. Liturgies and funerals have been disrupted by mobs Monks are being evicted from their monasteries, with these historic properties being handed over to the OCU. https://orthodoxreflections.com/why-the-ukraine-schism-matters/