The Office of the President of Ukraine coordinated the ban on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with the Phanar, and the church’s priests will be used for prisoner exchanges — Novinsky

The law recently passed by the Verkhovna Rada, which paves the way for a potential ban on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), might be seen by Ukrainian authorities as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Russia. Additionally, arrested UOC clerics could be used as part of a prisoner exchange fund.

This perspective was shared by former Ukrainian MP and businessman Vadym Novynskyi in a Facebook post where he commented on the newly adopted law.

“August 20 will go down in Ukraine’s history as a day of shame and betrayal. This event is a direct result of the Ukrainian leadership’s policies, which have been deliberately pursued over the past decade. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been slandered, accused of non-existent sins, restricted in its actions and opportunities, and, with the onset of the war, declared illegal,” stated the former MP.

Novynskyi asserts that the law passed by the Rada is “the result of joint actions by President Zelensky and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.”

“Each of them had their own goals, but the Office of the President constantly coordinated its plans with the Phanar. A few days before the law was passed, a Ukrainian delegation visited Istanbul to agree on further steps with Patriarch Bartholomew. Thus, instead of caring for the unity of Orthodoxy in the world and the fate of the clergy and believers, the Ecumenical Patriarch allowed actions that have deepened divisions in the Orthodox world,” the post reads.

Novynskyi also claimed that “Patriarch Bartholomew plans to establish a Kyiv Exarchate of the Constantinople Patriarchate in Ukraine, essentially creating another ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which underscores the mistake of creating the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) and the misguided policies of the Phanar that have been followed so far.” According to his information, emissaries from the Ecumenical Patriarch have already arrived in Kyiv to prepare for the creation of this new structure.

Vadym Novynskyi predicts that “the church issue will be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Russia, while bishops, priests, and laypeople” will be used to replenish the exchange fund by fabricating criminal cases against them.

“We see this in the example of Metropolitan Ionafan of Tulchyn and Bratslav, who was already exchanged. We know for certain that pressure is being exerted on other bishops, who are being openly blackmailed. Employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) are demanding their ‘voluntary’ consent to an exchange,” the businessman reported.