A former Ukrainian parliamentarian and prominent philanthropist is calling on the U.S. Congress to ensure that the financial support it sends to Ukraine isn't enabling the persecution of Christians.
In a May 23 interview on "The Tucker Carlson Show," Vadym Novynskyi, a Russian-born billionaire businessman, accused the Ukrainian government, led by President Volodymyr Zelensky, of waging a campaign against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The UOC has historic ties to the Moscow Patriarchate but officially severed those ties in May 2022 in opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
UOC is different from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which was officially recognized by most global Orthodox Church leaders in 2019 and is independent of Russian influence.
"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," Novynskyi told Carlson.
According to Novynskyi, there were 12,000 parishes and 7 million believers in the UOC before the war. Despite this, Novynskyi 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."
Novynskyi, who served three terms in the Ukraine Parliament and has been a Ukrainian citizen since 2012, also pointed to what he sees as escalating persecution toward Christians over the past decade, citing a law passed last year by the Parliament of Ukraine that bans churches and religious groups with ties to Moscow.
"Our archbishops are subjected to persecution," he said. "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."
Novynskyi, who has earned several UOC awards, including being named in 2019 to the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and Order of the UOC "The Nativity of Christ," cited specific cases of persecution against church metropolitans, including those under house arrest.
Addressing U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and other members of Congress, Novynskyi made a direct appeal: "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."
"I wish that the assistance and funding being provided keep being provided to the Ukrainian people. Right now, Ukrainians are struggling for survival. They are struggling for the survival of their families. ... Ukrainian authorities live in parallel realities. The Ukrainian people are thinking of how to survive and how to feed their families, how to be happy. It is a completely different reality from the Ukrainian authorities. The authorities live a different life and they profit from war."
In January, Ukrainian prosecutors charged Novynskyi with high treason and incitement to religious hatred for promoting "Russian narratives" since the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in the south of Ukraine. Novynskyi is one of the wealthiest men in Ukraine, with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion in 2023.
The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom both have warned that Russia "systematically" persecutes many Christian churches, except the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate.
In December 2022, Russian occupation officials formally banned the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in occupied territories, in addition to Caritas Ukraine and the worldwide Catholic brotherhood of the Knights of Columbus.
Some human rights experts in the U.S., such as Nina Shea from the conservative think tank Hudson Institute, see Ukraine's crackdown on what is termed "weaponized churches" as justified, citing the fact that Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church has backed the invasion of Ukraine.
"Religion was not Putin's primary reason for invading Ukraine, but Kirill has been his stalwart partner in the fight," wrote Shea, a former member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, in a January 2024 National Review op-ed.
However, some affiliated with impacted churches have pushed back on claims that they are pro-Russian. The UOC has issued statements denouncing the invasion, most recently in March, when Metropolitan Onufriy stated that the "Motherland has been suffering from the horrible bloodshed [from] the Russian army" and that "Nothing can be an excuse for those who break the blessed peace, multiply hatred, and sow death."
"The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, regardless of slander, speculation, and artificial accusations, remains with her people, caring about their well-being and the coming of a just peace in our Motherland," Onufriy stressed.
