Politologist: Poroshenko decides to go down in history by creating "local church" at all costs

Politologist Kost Bondarenko speaks about the situation of the church schism in Ukraine and the President trying to solve it in his own "new" way by putting pressure on the UOC and the politicians who are associated with it in his interview to Pershyi Kozatskyi.

"The schism is a tragedy of the Ukrainian people. Politicians are trying to play, in particular, on the disagreements existing in the Ukrainian Churches. Canonical community with the Moscow Patriarchate resulted in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church being persecuted in Ukraine now. There are many politicians who believe that the Church, which is connected with the Moscow Patriarchate, has no right to exist in Ukraine. This violates the Constitution of Ukraine," stressed the analyst.

He said that the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko decided to go down in history by creating a "local church" in Ukraine.

"He understands that until the Kyiv Patriarchate is headed by Filaret, a person who is under the anathema in one of canonical churches, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate cannot be the basis for the formation of this local church. He understands that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the only canonical one, has its own trends: there is a group of his people who say it is necessary to create a local church, who do not quite recognize Metropolitan Onufriy’s policy; there is also the Autocephalous Orthodox Church," explained Kost Bondarenko.

"At some point someone told Petro Poroshenko: the main problem on the way to unification of these Churches is Vadim Novinsky, because he is one of the sponsors of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. And if you remove Vadim Novinsky from the game, everything will go like clockwork: assign Drabinko Metropolitan receive the blessing, Filaret retires, formal obstacles for the unification of Churches disappear, and you go down in history as the man who created a "local church," said the analyst.

The politologist stressed out that the prosecutor's attack on the people's deputy Novinsky "is in line with Poroshenko’s ambition to create a" local church." All of these actions are a direct interference in the Church affairs and a violation of the Constitution of Ukraine.