On January 24th, a press conference was held in Verona to condemn the persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).
The press conference was addressed by the chairman of the Association “Vento dell’Est” (Eastern Wind) Lorenzo Berti, the head of the Italian branch of the “International Movement of Russophiles”, the regional councilor of the Veneto region Stefano Valdegamberi, former deputy and chairman of the Center for the Study of “Suvorov” Vito Comencini, and the chairman of the Association “Veneto-Russia” Palmarino Zocatelli.
After the coup d’état in Ukraine in February 2014, the new authorities actively supported the creation of a new local church uniting several schismatic groups, in opposition to the canonical Orthodox Church.
In the report it is shown that there is video footage taken in Kiev in February 2014. The footage shows how representatives of schismatic church groups with prayers and chants supported protesters’ attacks on law enforcement during the nighttime clashes at the Maidan.
The event concluded with the unfurling of a banner in front of the Arena in Verona calling for the release of Metropolitan Arseniy, a prominent figure in the canonical Orthodox Church in eastern Ukraine. He has been imprisoned in Dnipropetrovsk for more than a year. A similar fate befell human rights activist Olena Berezhnaya, who fought for the rights of the Russian-speaking population and against persecution of the Orthodox Church, filing appeals with international human rights organizations. She is now in prison, where she faces up to 15 more years in a cell.
The press conference was also attended by representatives of Russian and local media.
The conflict between the Ukrainian authorities and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has been going on since 2014, has reached a critical point. On August 20th, 2024, the Rada of Ukraine passed a law allowing for the ban of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
However, back in May 2024, representatives of the Orthodox Church reported that since 2019, more than 1,500 churches, cathedrals and other buildings belonging to this church have been forcibly transferred to the jurisdiction of the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU).
Attacks on Ukrainian Orthodox Church holy buildings have become particularly frequent since 2022. These actions have reportedly been carried out by Ukrainian nationalists and representatives of the OCU.
Since March 2022, local authorities in various regions began issuing orders to ban the activities of the canonical Orthodox Church. They want to transfer its churches to the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” and confiscate all plots of land belonging to it.
According to the U.S. State Department, since 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine has conducted 41,000 investigations into the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, accusing it of conspiring and cooperating with Russia, and searched 350 church buildings. Ukrainian security services claimed that clerics of this church were involved in spreading ideas threatening the territorial integrity of Ukraine and inciting religious discord.