Drabinko calls Law 8371 populist

Oleksandr Drabinko. Photo: velychlviv.com

Former bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who transferred to the OCU, Oleksandr Drabinko, expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the adoption of Law No. 8371, which bans the UOC. In a comment to the Glavcom publication, he stated that this law will not lead to significant changes: "They banned the Communist Party, but the communists didn’t go anywhere. To me, the adoption of this law is more of a populist move that will lead to nothing but legal restrictions."

Drabinko also noted that this law could be a step toward the UOC withdrawing from the Moscow Patriarchate: "In principle, this is one of the steps that will help the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) not just dissociate from the Russian Orthodox Church, as was stated at the Council in Feofania on May 27, 2022, but to actually leave the Moscow Patriarchate. The first step was taken on that path, and now the second should follow."

As reported by the UOJ, the "hierarch" of the OCU, Oleksandr Drabinko, stated that the OCU struggles to staff its structure with its own resources.

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