An American lawyer stated that the creation of the OCU is a Washington special operation

The creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in 2018 was an operation conducted by the U.S. government.

This claim was made by Robert Amsterdam, a lawyer representing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and a well-known legal expert, in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson.

“Five years ago, the Poroshenko administration, with active support from the U.S. government, established a new church in Ukraine. The U.S. State Department was involved in the creation of this church. I believe that either USAID or some other organizations funded this state-backed church known as the OCU,” Amsterdam stated.

According to him, the U.S. State Department engaged in “the destruction of religious freedom in a foreign country.” Amsterdam believes that the foundations of this policy against the UOC were laid as early as 2014 by then-State Department official Victoria Nuland.

“We met with individuals who were in high-ranking positions within the U.S. government, and they confirmed to me that this [the creation of the OCU] was a U.S. government operation,” Amsterdam added.

The lawyer further claimed that the newly established church has seized 1,500 churches from the UOC.