Founder of "Right Sector": Shutting Down a UOC Parish Is Like Eliminating a Russian Regiment

Epifaniy awards Yarosh [CREDIT: OCU}

KYIV — Dmytro Yarosh, founder and longtime leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement Right Sector, has publicly called for the complete destruction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), labeling it an imperial threat to Ukraine.

In a Facebook post, Yarosh declared that the UOC “must be liquidated as a hostile imperial phenomenon — completely.” His message was delivered in militaristic and inflammatory language.

“To neutralize one parish of the 'Russian church' in Ukraine is like destroying a regiment of rats at the front,” he wrote. “To return one Christian Ukrainian lavra or large monastery to the fold of the Ukrainian Church is to destroy the entire military army of the orcs.” The term “orcs” is a common derogatory expression used by some Ukrainian nationalists to refer to Russian forces.

Yarosh further stated that “priests of the UOC-FSB are total agents of the Kremlin — there is no place for them on Ukrainian soil.”

He concluded his post with a forceful slogan: “Out with the Moscow church from Ukraine!”

In the comments, Sonia Koshkina — a propagandist aligned with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), who previously gained notoriety for spreading false claims about a “boy in underwear” — responded simply: “Amen.”

This is not the first time Yarosh has publicly targeted the UOC. He has repeatedly called for its eradication and once asserted that “every UOC priest is worse than a Moscow puppet — worse even than the Pope of Rome.”

Yarosh's latest remarks come amid increasing state pressure on the UOC in Ukraine, where parishes have been seized or re-registered under the OCU, and clergy have faced legal and social persecution. His comments reflect a broader trend of hostility toward the canonical Church in Ukraine, often couched in the language of nationalism and warfare.

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