Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he views the Russian Security Council’s decision on the protection of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine as interference in Ukraine’s internal affairs.
“And after the Russian Federation Security Council made a decision on the protection – mind my words! – of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, I see this as immediate interference in Ukraine’s internal affairs and an element of hybrid aggression. And we clearly understand the threats that exist in this connection,” Poroshenko said at a conference on the implementation of a program to build housing for soldiers in Starychi in Lviv region on October 16.
After the Ecumenical Patriarchate made its historic decision granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and describing the Russian Orthodox Church’s encroachment on the Ukrainian Church as illegitimate, “the so-called Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church held a session yesterday,” he said.
“They demonstrated yet again that they are under the direct and immediate influence of the Kremlin, the Federal Security Service,” Poroshenko said.
