Administrative resource to provide mass processions of UOC KP, – expert

The UOC-KP cross procession in honor of the Day of the Rus Baptism in 2017

This was stated by the expert on religion in Ukraine, publicist Aleksandr Yermolenko in the commentary to the edition Argumenty i Fakty.

"In recent years, the Kyiv Patriarchate has been making a fool of itself," Yermolenko noted. “On the Day of the Baptism of Rus, tens of thousands of people participated in the procession of the UOC, while only a few thousand in that of the UOC-KP. This live "picture" every time debunked the statements of the spokesmen of the Kyiv Patriarchate, in which they tried to prove that the flock of the UOC-KP ostensibly exceeds the flock of the UOC twice."

According to the expert, this year would not be different, but politics interfered. "The authorities cannot fall on their face vis-à-vis the Patriarchate of Constantinople, who has been repeatedly informed that the Kyiv Patriarchate embraces millions of believers," the publicist believes. “So now they are tasked to do their best – by all truths and crooks – to ensure the number of procession participants who stand for the UOC-KP. <...> The administrative resource covers the entire Ukraine."

Earlier Zaporozhye eparchy reported on the use of administrative resource to ensure the numerical strength for the events organized by the Kyiv Patriarchate, which are to take place in the capital of Kiev. The official address of Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko) states that officials force "representatives of business to pay for buses to be sent to Kiev and participate in events held on July 28 by the UOC-KP."

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