Politologist comments on President's statement on religious affairs body

Kost Bondarenko, director of the Kyiv Gorshenin Institute of Management Problems, commented to the UOJ on the President's statement about his intention to remove the institution of religious affairs from the Ministry of Culture and give it more powers, which he said during a telethon on November 16, 2022.

"Zelenskyy is really far from church issues. And this is a plus because he is not repeating (interference in the affairs of the Church – Ed.) Poroshenko. As for the creation of an independent body for religious affairs, this is a topical issue and a good idea, but if this body is really independent," says the political expert, "Because when Viktor Yelensky is voiced, he is hardly an independent person in this matter. He is not impartial and has a serious bias within one denomination".

Kost Bondarenko noted that many believers of the UOC in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces defend Ukraine from the attacks of the aggressor, while the political players try to translate the issues of the Church in the political plane.

It should be recalled that the religious scholar Viktor Yelensky, an MP of the Verkhovna Rada of the 8th convocation, is the author of a number of anti-church bills. Earlier he said that the OCU had been granted the Thomos to achieve unity in Ukraine.

As reported, Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on the situation around the UOC.