BREAKING: Republican Leader Tells Ukrainian Judges to 'Oppose Tyranny' Ahead of Hearing to Ban UOC

Catherine Whiteford is Co-Chair of the National Young Republicans and an Orthodox Christian. Photo:catherinewhiteford.com

CHARLOTTE, NC — Late last evening, September 29, 2025, the Co-chairman of the Young Republican National Federation, the youth wing of the Republican Party, Catherine Whiteford, posted a video to X directed at the judges reviewing Zelensky's case to legally dismantle the Ukrainian Orthodox Church: "America and the world are watching — accountability is coming." 

UOJ-USA previously reported on the Department of Ethnopolitics and Culture's (DESS) legal assault on the Kyiv Metropolia of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

While DESS and state aligned media are adamant that they're not persecuting Christians, the international community says otherwise. Previously, the Vatican, United Nations, Anglican Church, Human Rights Watch, and the US State Department, have all voiced their concerns over the regime's treatment of the UOC — the largest and oldest religious organization in the country.

In July, the government stripped the primate of the UOC, Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All-Ukraine, of his Ukrainian citizenship, claiming that his Soviet era student ID was "proof" of Russian citizenship. "This is state sponsored persecution, plain and simple," says Whiteford.

In her address, Catherine Whiteford recalled the statement of U.S. President Donald Trump, who on September 23 at the UN General Assembly declared that “we must defend free speech and religious liberty, especially for persecuted Christians.”

Affirming Trump’s words, Whiteford noted that Christians are persecuted not only by hostile regimes but also by Ukraine, an ally of America.

"If this stands, millions of Ukrainians will lose their churches, their monasteries, even the right to pray in their homes. Clergy are already being targeted — some even forced to the front lines, where some have been killed."

For many Ukrainians, Whiteford's words are a beacon of hope. One Ukrainian man (who spoke to UOJ-USA on condition of anonymity) told UOJ, "we thank God for it, because we have no voice in Ukraine. If you say to the press 'yes my church was stolen, the state is persecuting us,' they say this is 'pro-Russia narrative' and you go to jail. If you say it was the schismatics who stole your church, they say you are 'destabilizing the religious situation' and you go to jail."

In Ukraine, UOJ journalists have been targeted by the government for reporting on church seizures and state repression of conscience and speech; several UOJ journalists have been imprisoned for covering the persecution in Ukraine.

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