00:00I think very few Americans understand the degree to which the Ukrainian government under Zelenskyy
00:07has persecuted the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Can you give us an overview of what your government
00:15has done to your church? Unfortunately, our government led by Zelenskyy has opened up a
00:25campaign of persecution and depression against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the largest church in
00:31Ukraine, the largest denomination of Christians in Ukraine. Before the war there were 12 000 parishes
00:39and 7 million believers in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and despite the fact that it's the largest
00:45denomination and that 95 to 97 percent voted for Zelenskyy as the president of peace, he is doing
00:52this to our church. He's persecuting and oppressing our church. Over the past 10 years persecution has
01:04intensified and currently right now it is leading to terrible consequences. As you know in parliament
01:12a law has been passed which actually in fact bans the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. So our archbishops are
01:20subjected to persecution, there are completely false criminal cases opened up against them, our parishioners
01:27beaten, our church is taken away, so satanism is flourishing in Ukraine. So some
01:37metropolitans are in prison, some are under house arrest, some examples are metropolitan Arseney who's
01:44currently in prison, who's the head of the Svetogors Collaborative, he's in prison under completely false
01:50accusations. Metropolitan Fyrosi, Metropolitan Luca, Metropolitan Anthony, they're all under house arrest.
01:58Another big example is Metropolitan Longinus, who actually has an orphanage in his church which has more
02:05than 600 disabled children. He's a man of love and he's still being persecuted, all for being faithful to the
02:12Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Every day churches and temples are seized by soldiers with machine guns who
02:27come in, who throw out priests, beat believers, children, old people, women, countless priests,
02:33countless attempts of Chernovitsky, which is a temple that's been attempted to be taken over,
02:38so every day it is happening all over Ukraine. One cannot help but feel deeply dissatisfied with
02:54these events and one cannot help but fear that our churches may continue to experience this persecution
03:00from the government. How can I tell you about the danger, that our church can be
03:09even further attached to this persecution from the government?
