JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russian Orthodox Church a ‘national security threat’ to Ukraine, says president; Petro Poroshenko said the Russian church was separated from the state ‘only on paper.'” – PoliticoEU/KAIT BOLONGARO

“… At a ceremony marking [Ukraine’s] conversion to Christianity 1,030 years ago … [Poroshenko] said that the Russian [Orthodox] [C]hurch’s sway among Ukrainian believers is a ‘direct threat to the national security of Ukraine.’ … ‘this obliges us to act.’ There are two branches of the Orthodox Church active in Ukraine: the Russian church and its Ukrainian cousin. The former, whose clerics are loyal to the patriarch in Moscow, has the most

adherents …. The Ukrainian church and its patriarch are based in Kiev. ‘I believe it is absolutely necessary to cut off all the tentacles with which the aggressor country operates inside the body of our state,’ said Poroshenko …. He said that the religious body is ‘separated from the state only on paper’ [and] ‘fully and unconditionally supports the Kremlin’s revanchist imperial policy.’ … “

The article goes on to indicate that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church supported the popular demonstrations that led to Ukrainian regime change in 2014, when a Russian-backed leader fled and ultimately was replaced.

Click here for: “Russian Orthodox Church a ‘national security threat’ to Ukraine, says president; Petro Poroshenko said the Russian church was separated from the state ‘only on paper.'” – PoliticoEU/KAIT BOLONGARO

[featured images are file photos from other occasions]