Pompeo's visit to Ukraine, or who is behind the persecution of the UOC

Epifaniy Dumenko and Mike Pompeo. Photo: UOJ

On April 4, 2023, former head of the US State Department Michael Pompeo arrived in Kyiv. In the capital of Ukraine, he met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Along the way, we note that Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk accompanied Pompeo to Zelenskyy. We will return to this point later.

On the same day, Mike Pompeo met with the head of the OCU, Epifaniy Dumenko. The former head of the State Department received the highest award of the OCU – the Cross of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from the hands of Dumenko, while the members of the American delegation were awarded with the Cross of Freedom medals.

What does this visit mean, and what does it have to do with what is happening in Ukraine?

Pompeo, Dumenko and the OCU

The OCU website reports that Dumenko had a “cordial meeting” with Pompeo, during which he “expressed gratitude… to the American people who are helping Ukrainians in this difficult time.” Pompeo received the OCU award "for his work for the good of Ukraine and the defense of religious freedom."

We remember exactly how the former head “defended rights and freedoms”. After all, it was this person who oversaw, and probably initiated, the process of creating an organization headed by Dumenko.

Pompeo's visit to Ukraine is most likely related to the election campaign. However, it is remarkable not only for this, but primarily for the fact that it took place in the midst of the struggle of the authorities against the UOC. Another interesting detail: some sources report that during the meeting with the President of Ukraine, experts on religious issues were present as part of the US delegation. Does this mean that the head of the Ukrainian state received an unequivocal signal from the United States that the embarked course for the complete elimination of the UOC is correct? Probably yes. And that's why.

Pompeo, CIA and Patriarch Bartholomew

In 2017, Michael Pompeo was appointed head of the Central Intelligence Agency by US President Donald Trump. As head of the CIA, Pompeo made his first visit to Turkey. The main purpose of the visit, according to the American press, was to agree with the Turkish government on a joint fight in Syria against ISIS.

However, according to journalists, the visit to Ankara had another purpose – to discuss with the Turkish special services the issue of Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, who was in the United States at that time.

Gülen was accused of being the organizer of an attempt to overthrow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. At the same time, the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) suspected that Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople was involved to some extent in the failed coup. For example, the Turkish newspaper Aydınııık claimed that Bartholomew knew about the upcoming putsch, and for this reason he left Turkey literally three hours before it began.

In the Turkish media, Phanar is most often called the "US Embassy in Turkey", while Patriarch Bartholomew is considered a CIA informant. Therefore, as “evil tongues” say, when the situation with the head of the Phanar in Turkey escalated to the limit (recall that dozens of Turkish officers were shot on suspicion of participating in the coup), the head of the CIA, Pompeo, as a curator, came to “save” him personally.

Probably, for his services, Pompeo asked Bartholomew for a small "favor" – to participate in the creation of the OCU. Because it was after 2017 (when Pompeo visited Ankara) that Bartholomew himself and his inner circle began to actively voice the future creation of a “single local church in Ukraine.”

Filaret, State Department and OCU

Of course, it is impossible to say that the “single local church in Ukraine” project appeared in 2017. It is clear that it was discussed much earlier, but there were no suitable conditions for its implementation. And only when everything "worked out", the project received the "go-ahead" and a start in life.

Indeed, all the details of the "special operation" to create the OCU were prepared long before their implementation. This is confirmed by an archival video in which “patriarch” Filaret Denisenko tells how this “special operation” will be implemented.

Thus, back in 2021, Denisenko announced that his organization would merge with the UAOC (if the UOC refuses), and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church "will be able to temporarily exist on the territory of Ukraine as the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine." Back in 2021, Filaret was sure that “we will be recognized by other Local Churches, and, above all, by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.”

Such confidence is easily explained, because Dmytro Stepovyk, Denisenko’s closest associate, teacher of the KP Theological Academy, said that he personally accompanied Filaret to the United States 13 times, where he met with the American lobbyist Gus Bilirakis, whose father, by “pure chance”, was the archon of the Phanar. In turn, Gus himself lobbied for the interests of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the US Congress.

Therefore, we can assume that Filaret's visits to the State Department began long before he announced a plan to destroy the UOC in 2001, which is being implemented today before our eyes.

State Department, UGCC and destruction of UOC

But are only the Phanar and the State Department interested in the absence of the UOC in Ukraine?

Of course not. Another party, the UGCC, is taking an active part in the destruction of the UOC. And although the head of the UGCC, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, stated in January 2023 that he was against the UOC receiving a “halo of martyrdom,” the deeds of his parishioners testify to the contrary.

For example, in the Uniate-dominant regions of Ukraine, churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church either do not exist at all or their number tends to an arithmetical error. In addition, the Uniates, both priests and laity, take an active part in the pogroms of the temples of the UOC. Only today, the mayor of Lviv, the Uniate Andriy Sadovyi, joyfully reported that he had liquidated “the last church of the Moscow Patriarchate” in the city – removed with an excavator.

There is another fact that bespeaks the Uniates’ keen interest in the destruction of the UOC. Remember, at the beginning of our article, we said that Pompeo was accompanied by Pinchuk during his visit to Zelensky?

So, on January 20 (the day after Shevchuk’s interview, where he talked about how the ROC influences the UOC), First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska and Archbishop of the Philadelphia Archdiocese of the UGCC, UCU President Borys Hudziak held a discussion panel at the Ukrainian House in Davos. The event was organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and the international investment and consulting group EastOne, founded by the same Pinchuk. During this discussion, Olena Zelenska and the Bishop of the UGCC, who took an active part in the events on the Maidan in 2013-2014, “discussed the future of Ukraine and the Russian Federation.” The discussion was broadcast by the YouTube channel of the President of Ukraine.

That is, the spouse of the Head of State discusses the future of the country with the bishop of the UGCC. Does this mean that the Ukrainian authorities do not see anyone other than the Uniates in the future of Ukraine? Probably yes. What will this "future" look like?

Vatican, Phanar and Ukraine

Given the fact that Pompeo accompanied Pinchuk, who was somehow connected with the Uniates and lobbying for their interests, this “future” does not bode well for Orthodox Christians.

The visit to Zelensky by the former head of the State Department, the founder of the OCU and one of the main candidates for the US presidency, Pompeo, should mean that the Ukrainian authorities received a signal that by destroying the UOC, they are moving in the right direction.

In turn, behind the State Department, which initiates the destruction of the UOC, stands the shadow of the “successor of the Apostle Peter,” i.e. the Vatican. The UGCC is only a tool with which the State Department clears the “Drang nach Osten” for the Vatican, i.e. an offensive to the East.

Ukrainian Orthodoxy in this sense greatly interferes with the plans of the Vatican to Catholicize the East. There is no place for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the “unity of churches” being actively promoted by the papal throne and the Phanar now.

Kievan Rus, and later the Lithuanian principality, Galicia and Ukraine of the time of Bogdan Khmelnytsky have always been a tidbit for the Catholic Church. It is not for nothing that Shevchuk, as well as representatives of the UGCC and Phanar, have repeatedly said that Ukraine should become a platform on which the “reunification” of Catholicism and Orthodoxy will take place. Even the date of this reunion has already been set – 2025. That is why all the ongoing developments are so bulging.

Almost from the very beginning of its existence, our country had to fight for the right to confess the Orthodox faith. Those generations of Ukrainians who lived before us preserved their faith in God and passed it on to us.

We hope we will also be able to preserve it. Because otherwise neither God nor history will forgive us.

Read also