The UOC-MP repeats the mistake of Viktor Yanukovych
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate began a grand procession for peace. Several thousand believers are moving from the Pochaev Lavra (Ternopil region), another column from the Svyatogorsk Lavra (Donetsk region) is coming towards them. Parishioners from the West and East should meet at the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, which will symbolize the unity of believers.
This is not the only purpose of the procession. The day before, information appeared in the press that the Security Council of Ukraine was preparing to recognize the UOC-MP as an enemy structure and almost ban its activities. So the procession of Orthodox Christians should demonstrate the strength of the largest confession and warn Maidan activists against aggressive steps.
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How did the Ukrainian press greet the religious procession? Negative. TV channels are looking for holders of St. George's ribbons and icons of Nicholas II among the participants in the procession. Political scientists close to the SBU like Vitaly Kulik talk about “an attempt at revenge by the separatists.” Street groups of Nazis promise to “beat the Moscow priests.”
What are the PR specialists of the UOC-MP doing in this situation? They compete with nationalists in Ukraine. Here, for example, is how the famous Kiev journalist Vyacheslav Pikhovshek, who did not support Euromaidan, “protects” the religious procession from attacks.
“Photo of the Hod from the Pochaev Lavra. Ukrainian Orthodox people are coming. This is not the Russian world. This is the Ukrainian world. They are walking in the rain. Overcoming yourself. Are there those among my readers who see the Russian world and Russian paratroopers here?” – Pihovshek wrote.
Vyacheslav Pikhovshek in the past worked with President Leonid Kuchma, author of the book “Ukraine is not Russia.” And it seems that now he is trying to impose this position on the UOC-MP.
The UOC-MP is part of the Russian Orthodox Church, which means the Russian world. And the PR people of the religious procession, to please the political moment, register all the participants in the religious procession as “Ukrainians.”
How do Pikhovshek’s theses differ from the ideas of the autocephalists, led by Alexander Drabinko, who come up with new prayers for the glory of the saints, “who shone in the Ukrainian land”?
The “Russian World” thesis, like the St. George ribbons, has been turned into unconditional evil by Ukrainian television channels. But is Pikhovshek’s task to justify himself, and not to explain the fallacy of propaganda on TV?
Did Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev think, when he refused to stand up during Poroshenko’s speech glorifying the ATO, that he would be considered a “Russian paratrooper”?
Trying to compete in Ukrainianness with nationalists is a loss. In Donbass and Crimea, people protested against the refusal to recognize them as Russians and respect their rights. These are parishioners of the UOC MP.
Alas, judging by the theses of the Kyiv “anti-Maidan” ideologists, no conclusions have been drawn from the events of 2014. At the end of his reign, Viktor Yanukovych also competed with Ukrainian nationalists in “Europeanness” and “Ukrainianness.” How did it all end?
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