Zelensky Rejects Claims Ukraine Persecutes Christians, Says Russia Has Killed About 120 Religious Representatives
In an interview with Tony Perkins, Ukraine's president defended religious freedom in his country and challenged Tucker Carlson. Critics of Ukraine's 2024 church law still object to it.
Learn more ›UKRAINE —
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected accusations that his government persecutes Christians, telling host Tony Perkins on “This Week on Capitol Hill” on Saturday, Oct. 31, that religious groups in Ukraine are free. “We are very free,” Zelensky said, according to The Christian Post.
Learn more ›Zelensky suggested that American commentator Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host, has probably never visited Ukraine, and said Carlson “doesn't know what's going on in Ukraine.” In 2023, at the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa, Carlson asked former Vice President Mike Pence whether he had raised the treatment of Christians with Zelensky at their June 2023 meeting. The Orthodox Public Affairs Committee, a U.S.-based group, accused Carlson of spreading “Russian propaganda.”
Zelensky said Ukraine has the largest council of religious institutions in Europe, with members meeting monthly at the presidential office to deal with humanitarian aid, destroyed buildings and church leaders tortured or jailed by Russia. Perkins said he met the council and Zelensky during an August visit and prayed for the president on Independence Day.
Learn more ›Perkins raised accusations that Russian troops have detained and tortured Christian pastors and taken over churches in occupied areas. Zelensky said Russians have killed about 120 religious representatives and called the killings deliberate attacks on people and churches.
The dispute centers on a 2024 law, passed by Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, banning religious bodies tied to Moscow, including the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church. Ukrainian officials accused the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of acting for the Russian church, whose leader, Patriarch Kirill, called the invasion “holy.” The Ukrainian Orthodox Church had cut its historic ties to the Moscow patriarch in May 2022 to oppose the war, The Christian Post reported. The ban did not cover the separate Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Council of Churches supported the ban, saying Russian forces had killed dozens of clergy and destroyed hundreds of churches.
See where this is ›Critics say the law goes too far. Wesley J. Smith, who chairs the Center on Human Exceptionalism at the Discovery Institute, argued the state should not decide which church is legitimate, and Bob Amsterdam, a lawyer for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, told Carlson the government was targeting the church for political reasons. Nina Shea, who heads the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, said the crackdown might be extreme but was justified because of Kirill's support for the war. The Christian Post reported that by January 2024 Ukrainian authorities had arrested 68 priests and Metropolitan Pavel, a Ukrainian Orthodox Church leader; advocates called spying charges against clergy false.
Zelensky also thanked First Lady Melania Trump for helping arrange a local ceasefire in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town, where aid began arriving and civilians began leaving on Friday. He said U.S. mediators have proposed technical-level talks among Ukraine, Russia and the United States in Abu Dhabi, possibly Nov. 6-10, though he warned the date and location could change.
See where this is ›What we don't know yet: Watchman News has not independently confirmed Zelensky's figure of about 120 religious representatives killed, and whether the Abu Dhabi talks will take place on those dates is not settled.
