A former Ukrainian parliamentarian is urging the U.S. Congress to ensure that its financial aid to Ukraine does not facilitate the persecution of Christians.
In an interview on “The Tucker Carlson Show” on May 23, Vadym Novynskyi, a Russian-born billionaire businessman, accused the Ukrainian government, led by President Volodymyr Zelensky, of persecuting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).
The UOC, which has historical ties to the Moscow Patriarchate, severed those ties in May 2022 in opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is distinct from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which was recognized as independent by most global Orthodox leaders in 2019.
Novynskyi described the situation, saying, “Unfortunately, our government, led by Zelensky, has opened up a campaign of persecution and oppression against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the largest church in Ukraine, the largest denomination of Christians in Ukraine.”
According to Novynskyi, the UOC had 12,000 parishes and 7 million believers before the war. He claimed, “as many as 97% of Ukrainians voted for Zelensky as the president of peace,” yet “he is doing this to our church. He's persecuting and oppressing our church.”
A former member of the Ukrainian Parliament, he has been a Ukrainian citizen since 2012 and has received several honors from the UOC, including the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and the Order of the UOC “The Nativity of Christ” in 2019.
Novynskyi also pointed to what he sees as escalating persecution of Christians over the past decade, citing a law passed last year by the Ukrainian Parliament that bans churches and religious groups connected to Moscow. He stated, “Our archbishops are subjected to persecution. There are completely false criminal cases opened up against them. Our parishioners [are] beaten, our church is taken away, so Satanism is flourishing in Ukraine.”
He provided specific examples of persecution against church leaders, including house arrests of metropolitans, and challenged U.S. lawmakers, saying, “It would be good if the money that comes in, if we don’t spend it to support those who are seizing our churches, the only canonical in Ukraine, the largest denomination, the thousand-year-old church that is Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”
In January, Ukrainian prosecutors charged Novynskyi with high treason and incitement to religious hatred for promoting “Russian narratives” since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. With an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion in 2023, he remains one of Ukraine’s wealthiest men.
The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom have issued warnings that Russia “systematically” persecutes many Christian churches, except for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate. In December 2022, Russian occupation authorities officially banned the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the territories they occupy, along with Caritas Ukraine and the Knights of Columbus.
