Ending the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) will be the first step towards peace in Ukraine. This was stated by Vakhtang Kipshidze, Deputy Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations and the Media of the Moscow Patriarchate, at a meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) of the world Organization convened by Russia in connection with the persecution of the UOC.

"The first step towards restoring peace in Ukraine, in our opinion, is to stop the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. And I call on the UN Security Council, putting aside political differences, to protect ordinary believers from unprecedented repression," Kipshidze said.
"We do not hear and will not hear the voices of the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the UN Security Council. They are intimidated, afraid to openly defend their rights, because in this case they are expected to be repressed on the territory of Ukraine," he said.

There has been an active campaign against the canonical UOC in Ukraine recently, including encouraging the transition of its religious communities under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, created in 2018 from two schismatic structures. In October 2023, the Verkhovna Rada supported in the first reading a bill prepared on behalf of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, which is aimed at banning the UOC.

According to the materials of TASS