The Ukrainian Parliament has decided to ban the Russian Orthodox Church, ordering its clergy to join the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as “freedom of worship” appears to be too Western a concept for Kyiv. Zelensky celebrates this “spiritual independence,” ignoring that a third of Orthodox Ukrainians follow the Russian Church, but who cares? After all, Ukraine is the new champion of democracy—the kind that bans political parties, arrests opponents, and postpones elections. And Europe? Absolute silence, because “democratic values” are not up for debate, especially when they serve to mask the hypocrisies of those who want to teach us what freedom is.
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The Ukrainian Parliament has banned the Russian Orthodox Church and ordered the clergy to join the Ukrainian Orthodox Church within nine months. This is the church that, in 1992 (after independence from the USSR), declared a schism from the Moscow Patriarchate, to which it had been subject since the seventeenth century. Zelensky rejoices over “our spiritual independence,” ignoring the fact that a third of the 71% of Orthodox Ukrainians still follow the Russian rite. Is this just their problem? No, it’s ours too: Ukraine is a candidate for EU membership at record speed and is being artificially kept alive by billions in Western funds. But European authorities are silent. As always in these cases.
When, in 2014, the legitimate president Yanukovych was overthrown, a new election was held, and the oligarch Poroshenko won. He appointed four neo-Nazi ministers and incorporated the neo-Nazi Azov battalion into the National Guard, but no one said anything because the newly elected president was our friend, and thus a sincere democrat.
When Poroshenko began bombing the Russian-speaking population in Donbass (14,400 dead in the civil war from 2014-2022) and abolished Russian as the second official language in a country where a third of the population is Russian-speaking and everyone knows Russian, no one said anything because the Russian-speakers are defended by Putin.
When Kyiv’s troops in Donbass killed 40 troublesome journalists, including the Italian Andrea Rocchelli, everyone remained silent because only Putin kills journalists.
When, after the Russian invasion, Zelensky outlawed 11 opposition parties, arrested the leader of the most voted one, and shut down TV channels that refused to join the single government-run platform, everyone kept quiet because Kyiv is not Moscow.
When a Ukrainian commando blew up the Russian-German Nord Stream gas pipelines, everyone blamed Moscow for bombing itself, just as they did when Kyiv’s secret services killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of a Putinist philosopher in Moscow, because Putin is the only terrorist.
When Zelensky banned negotiations with Moscow by decree, everyone was silent because NATO arms Ukraine to negotiate better with Moscow.
When Kyiv arrests thousands of young Ukrainians fleeing conscription, everyone remains quiet because young Ukrainians can’t wait to die in a war that’s lost from the start.
When Zelensky postponed elections to stay in power, everyone stayed silent because Ukraine is a democracy.
When Ukrainians invaded Russia’s Kursk region, everyone talked about “legitimate defense” and “a push for negotiations,” only for it to be revealed that they had disrupted new negotiations in Doha and left Donbass defenses exposed, where the Russians are now advancing.
Now that Zelensky has also abolished freedom of worship, everyone remains silent because Putin is the only one who politicizes the Church for his own ends.
A trivial curiosity: what exactly are these famous “Western democratic values” that Ukraine is defending with our money and our weapons?
Il Fatto Quotidiano, August 21, 2024
