Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted during an interview with Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro that Ukraine has cracked down on some Christian leaders and churches that his government believes to have ties with Russia but denied the allegation that Ukraine is suppressing religious freedom. 

The conservative commentator questioned Zelensky about reports that Ukraine is persecuting Russian Orthodox Christians during a recent interview in Kyiv. The interview follows three years of war after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. 

"There have been a lot of accusations that there's been a crackdown on religious freedom in Ukraine, particularly with regard to the Russian Orthodox Church," Shapiro said, asking Zelensky to address the allegations that Ukraine is restricting religious freedom and shutting down churches of the Russian Orthodox in Ukraine.

Before the interview, Zelensky met with the leaders of various Christian denominations who are part of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations.

According to a statement by the UCCRO, Zelensky and the religious leaders' discussion included expanded opportunities for clergy to provide spiritual care to Ukrainian refugees. 

"We have a meeting like that a couple of times per year, and I truly visit some of the churches' sites," the Ukrainian president told Shapiro. 

"We have a meeting with all of our religious institutions," he continued. "I believe that what Ukraine has is the largest council of churches in Europe. All of our churches are united — different religions, different believers, and everyone is united."

"The Moscow church is just another agency of the KGB," Zelensky asserted in the interview. "Everyone knows that Russia's special services are in control of the church."

"Moscow cannot be in control of the church," he added, citing this as one of the reasons Ukraine passed a law in 2024 banning churches and religious groups with ties to Moscow. 

"Nobody closed anything or anyone. But it can't be the case that Russia's KGB is in control of the church in Ukraine," the Ukrainian president stated. "Everyone is against these legal ties."

As the Russia-Ukraine war continues, reports have surfaced that Ukraine has escalated its actions against the Russian Orthodox Church and its Ukrainian affiliates. In 2023, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviewed Bob Amsterdam, an attorney representing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. 

The attorney insisted that politicians in Ukraine, including Zelensky, want to take the populist vote of those behind an autocephalous church, which Amsterdam defined as "an independent church" that does not have "any connection to the Russian canons."

Amsterdam claimed that the Ukrainian government "decided that that church should replace the spiritual home of Ukrainians," adding, "that church, called the OCU, has been engaged in an absolutely vicious, unlimited campaign to steal property, harass, intimidate and jail clerics, force conscription on believers, act in a manner that is almost unbelievable in a civilized society."

Carlson lamented modern global events that "seem like an attack on Christianity." The political pundit has faced criticism from the Orthodox Public Affairs Committee, which condemned the media personality for spreading "Russian propaganda about so-called Christian persecution in Ukraine."  

Hedieh Mirahmadi, an attorney and a former Muslim, cited Carlson in a December 2022 op-ed for The Christian Post, expressing concern about religious freedom in Ukraine. Mirahmadi noted Zelensky's proposal to ban all religious organizations "affiliated with centers of influence" in Russia, arguing there are less "restrictive" ways to curtail subversive Russian activities. 

The UCCRO praised the ban on Russian churches in Ukraine and condemned the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church, which "has become an accomplice to the Russian invaders' bloody crimes against humanity, which sanctifies weapons of mass destruction and openly declares the need to destroy Ukrainian statehood, culture, identity, and, more recently, Ukrainians themselves."

"We support the legislative initiative of the President of Ukraine to make it impossible for such organizations to operate in our country, which also has broad political and public support," UCCRO declared in its August 2024 statement.

In March 2024, the World Russian People's Council, led by Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kiril, labeled President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine as a "holy" endeavor. The decree, published by the Moscow Patriarchate, framed the war as Russia battling the "criminal Kiev regime" and Western "Satanism," calling it a "special military operation."

Nina Shea, a human rights lawyer and director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the conservative Washington-based think tank Hudson Institute, argued in a January 2024 op-ed for National Review that Ukraine's crackdown on the Russian Orthodox Church and affiliates is justified because Patriarch Kiril can be seen as an active pariticipant in the war. She believes Ukraine must "defend itself from Russia's aggression, and that should include defending itself from a weaponized church."

"Religion was not Putin's primary reason for invading Ukraine, but Kirill has been his stalwart partner in the fight," wrote Shea, a former member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/zelensky-addresses-religious-freedom-crackdown-in-ukraine.html