After Ukraine created a unified Ukrainian Orthodox Church on Dec. 15, President Petro Poroshenko, went to celebrate the event at a press conference to address the nation and take questions from journalists.
Only three out of 23 journalists allowed to ask a question asked about the church. Most questions focused on corruption, Russia’s war and the March 31 presidential elections.
The press conference took place on Dec. 16 at Mystetskyi Arsenal in Kyiv and was broadcast live on national television channels.
Poroshenko announced he wanted to initiate the creation of Ukrainian Orthodox Church and acquiring autocephaly from the highest body in world Orthodoxy, the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate of the Eastern Orthodox Church, in April. His decision was approved by the Ukrainian parliament and Poroshenko appealed to the leader of the Orthodox believers, Patriarch Bartholomew I, to grant independence to the Ukrainian church from Russia. The Constantinople Patriarchate approved Poroshenko’s appeal and took a number of steps for it since April.
On Dec. 15, the representatives of three Ukraine’s Orthodox churches attended the Unification Council, where they disbanded two churches, created the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church and elected its head, Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine Epiphanius.
Ukraine is expected to receive Tomos, a deed of autocephaly, or independence, for the new national church on Jan. 6.
Since April, Poroshenko — who trails in the polls behind his strongest challenger, ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko — has turned the church question into a part of his image campaign: Numerous billboards all over Ukraine read his new slogan “Army. Language. Faith.”
So as soon as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was created and its head was elected, the president addressed the nation.
“There are two weeks left until the end of 2018, however, it is already clear that it will take a special place in Ukrainian history, and yesterday in particular,” Poroshenko said as he took the stage.
The president congratulated Ukraine with autocephaly, “a crucial step in the process of state-building.”
And he said that from the very first days of his presidency he considered church independence not only a religion question but also national defense and state-building.
Poroshenko said he was bound to have “extremely complicated negotiations” for years before the process of gaining church independence became public.
After the president’s speech was over, he took questions from the media.
His spokesman, Svyatoslav Tseholko, who moderated the press conference, suggested questions about the autocephaly be asked first. Despite the pushed agenda, only one person raised his hand: It was the representative of the Facebook group “Tomos 2018” who asked Poroshenko to unveil what was going on behind the closed doors of the Unification Council, which the president attended.
Other than that, three more journalists asked Poroshenko about church independence.
Corruption, attacks on activists
Some of the journalists were wearing t-shirts with a printed inscription “Who is behind the assault on Kateryna Gandziuk?” So Poroshenko decided to comment on that.
Gandziuk was an anti-corruption campaigner and local council official who lived in Kherson, a city of 290,000 people some 550 kilometers south of Kyiv. She was attacked with acid on July 31. She received serious burns to 40 percent of her body and died in hospital in Kyiv on Nov. 4.
“I share your concern. We will not ruin the image of the country by not investigating activists’ cases,” Poroshenko said.
He also said that there are no reasons to oppose Gandziuk.
“She had repeatedly stated that she supported me,” Poroshenko said.
However, multiple Facebook posts of the late activist suggest the opposite – Gandziuk criticized Poroshenko’s dominant, 135-member Petro Poroshenko Bloc in parliament and the president himself.
Poroshenko also claimed he wasn’t satisfied with the level of fighting corruption in Ukraine.
“Who is this question to? To all of us including the president,” he said.
Despite having four and a half years in the post, the biggest faction in the parliament and a subservient prosecutor general in Yuriy Lutsenko, Poroshenko believes that in order to effectively fight with corruption “we all need to unite.”
The Ukrainian media also asked the president about the cases of such controversial officials as former State Fiscal Service Chief Roman Nasirov, a suspect in a major corruption case, who ordered reinstated in his job recently, and Serhiy Semochko, first deputy head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, accused of unjust enrichment and having a Russian passport.
Poroshenko said that it’s not his function as president to give instructions on who to detain. If they appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, they can use the authorities’ interference as an argument that their cases are politically motivated.
Medvedchuk
Poroshenko was asked if he had any plan on how to communicate with Russian President Vladimir Putin to free Ukrainians imprisoned in Russia, and if that plan involved Viktor Medvedchuk, Putin’s friend and pro-Kremlin politician, who participates in the prisoner exchange negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.
According to Poroshenko, the reason why none of the Ukrainian prisoners kept in Russia were released this year was because Putin didn’t want that.
He said he believes that Medvedchuk represents Putin at the negotiations, however, he might be the only tool to deliver information to Russia’s president, which is why if there’s a possibility to bring Ukrainians back home from Russia, he meets Medvedchuk.
Poroshenko was shown in an investigation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Schemes investigative television show to be hosting, allegedly, Medvedchuk in multiple alleged visits to the Presidential Administration.
Elections
Talking about elections, Poroshenko said that he hasn’t decided whether he will run for president in 2019.
“If there is someone more worthy I will help them,” he said.
He was also asked why he doesn’t say his opponents’ names – presidential candidates Tymoshenko, Anatoliy Grytsenko and Yuriy Boyko.
Poroshenko said that he didn’t consider them as his opponents now.
“I am the president of Ukraine and they are either faction leaders or civic activists.”
