"Myriany" head in Rivne: UOC faithful persecuted like Jews before Holocaust

Head of the Public Union "Myriany" in the Rivne region, Tetiana Tsaruk. Photo: a video screenshot of the Telegram channel "Tetiana Tsaruk. In Search of Truth."

The situation of the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in their own country today resembles the situation of Jews in Germany before the Holocaust, said the leader of the Rivne branch of the Public Union "Myriany" (“Laity”) Tetiana Tsaruk in a video address.

"The current religious course of the authorities is the portrayal of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, all believers – both laity and clergy – as collaborators, as carriers of the 'Russian world,'" she said. "We are being marked, we are being stigmatized, and this is actively propagated in the media."

Tetiana noted that in the opinion of those in power, representatives of the UOC "should be condemned, deprived of their rights, expelled from the country, robbed," and "at all levels, there is freedom to openly commit criminal acts against the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church".

According to the Rivne resident, it is now "very easy to blame the believers of the UOC for all the bad things happening in our country."

"We are 'different' although we defend Ukraine, our boys and girls give the most valuable thing – their lives, many return from the war wounded. We volunteer, we work, we wish our country victory, but all this is not taken into account. We are 'different’!'" Tatiana stressed.

She pointed out that opponents of the UOC do not stop - "on the contrary, they set dates when they will already ban us, when they will drive us into catacombs, they calculate how many people will remain, how many will be sifted out, how many will join the OCU".

"We must stand for one another; we must support one another – our victory is in unity. We all want Ukraine to win, we want negotiations on favourable terms for Ukraine, and we want peace and prosperity. But all this will not happen if there is such inequality, such humiliation," said the leader of the Rivne branch.

According to her, the "aggression and darkness that are poured out" on Orthodox Christians, including through the media, only unite the believers.

"Perhaps it will get worse in the future, but I believe that God will not abandon us because we keep our faith, we defend our country, we are honest before God and people," Tetiana Tsaruk stressed.

As reported, in the village of Bodaky, Ternopil Region, supporters of the OCU threatened to kill a soldier who had come from the front for his grandmother's funeral if he did not give up his intention to conduct the funeral service in the UOC.

Read also