Russian by passport and in spirit

He has not formally renounced it, although today he claims that he has "abandoned" it. As evidence, he said, "This was especially confirmed when I spoke out against Russia's war with Ukraine and condemned Russian aggression." On this basis, Onufriy stated, "I consider myself a citizen of Ukraine only.”

This is not true.

The Metropolitan spoke out against the war after February 24, 2022. So, until then, even in his mind, he remained a citizen of the Russian Federation, a state whose troops invaded Ukraine back in 2014.

Moreover, legally, the process of acquiring and renouncing citizenship does not include a procedure called "renunciation." Thus, the head of the UOC (MP) himself confirmed that he is a citizen of the aggressor and terrorist state.

In the end of his very vague explanations, Onufriy assured that he "does not consider" himself a citizen of any other country "except my native land - Ukraine." He does not know how politicians "regard" him. He assures that he doesn’t "have a Russian passport."

They thought they were the smartest

By and large, politicians don't care whether the Metropolitan of the UOC (MP) is a Russian citizen. Except for the fact that he calls himself the head of the Ukrainian church. Therefore, in order not to be "considered" a Russian citizen, one must show the will and simply give up the two-headed passport. There are plenty of ways to do this, if there is a real desire.

Instead, Metropolitan Onufriy has gone out of his way to make Ukrainians look like fools. His words about "abandoning" Russian citizenship and "not considering" himself a citizen of the Russian Federation should be regarded in the same way as his statements that the UOC (MP) "dissociated" from the Russian Orthodox Church at the council on May 27, 2022.

There is no term "dissociation" in church law or Ukrainian legislation. For the head of the Moscow church in Ukraine, its use was a way of manipulating state authorities and an attempt to mislead Ukrainian society. Which, after the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, demanded that the state, church and religious organizations sever all ties with Moscow.

Instead of taking the side of its people, the UOC (MP) decided to resort to "tricks" in the hope that no one would understand the intricacies of canonical terms. Everyone was supposed to be satisfied that the church led by Onufriy had become seemingly independent.

But the truth cannot be hidden: the status of the UOC (MP) has not changed, and it remains part of the Russian Orthodox Church, fully subordinate to Moscow. Likewise, the Metropolitan cannot hide the fact that he is a Russian by passport and will not give up this civic identity.

Russia "accepted" him, Ukraine "rejected" him

In his explanations, Onufriy also sincerely said that his affiliation with Russia lies not just in the legal component. He considers himself a Russian in spirit, while Ukraine is alien to him, and even more so, he dislikes it.

Wanting to study for the priesthood, in 1969 a Ukrainian from Bukovyna, Orest Berezovsky, tried to enter the Odesa Theological Seminary. However, he was denied admission because, according to the metropolitan, he had dropped out of Chernivtsi University, which was seen as "a stain on the Ukrainian atheist society, which did not foster the spirit of an atheist in me even at the university."

Instead, he was accepted in Russia, where the famous Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius was located in Zagorsk and the Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary were attached to it. "They did not reject me there, as they did in Ukraine," the metropolitan laments.

In 1971 he took monastic vows. "I spent 19 years within the walls of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius," Onufriy wrote with undisguised nostalgia. “These were the most wonderful years of my life.(...) We had a wonderful spiritual family, we respected each other, worried about each other and helped each other. I was happy and dreamed of living in a holy monastery for the rest of my life." But it didn't happen as he had hoped. In 1988, he was "transferred" to the Pochayiv Lavra, and two years later "to his native Bukovyna."

It should be noted that the Metropolitan does not indicate who transferred him to Ukraine and why he obeyed, although he felt fine in Zagorsk. This could only have been done by "relevant factors" in Moscow, who were trying to take additional control of the situation in Ukraine, where a national, spiritual, and religious revival had begun on the wave of perestroika.

Particularly trusted personnel

Of course, it is most effective to control the processes in Ukraine with "especially trusted personnel." The calculation came true: in early 1992, Bishop Onufriy of Bukovyna refused to sign the appeal of the UOC bishops' council to Patriarch Alexy II to speed up the process of reviewing the documents of the UOC Council of November 1991 on the issue of autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church.

In 2018, Metropolitan Onufriy did everything he could to torpedo the granting of the Tomos to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In favor of the imperial interests of Russia, whose citizen - by passport and spirit - is Orest Berezovsky. 

For younger readers, it is worth explaining the other circumstances of Orest Berezovsky's church career in order to understand his words that Ukraine "rejected him." In the late USSR, the vast majority of existing Orthodox parishes were on Ukrainian territory, and most candidates for priests and monks were Ukrainians. That is why the Moscow leadership constantly reproached the Kyiv authorities and local authorities (up to organizational conclusions) for not fighting enough against religion and Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism.

The fact that Orthodox theological seminaries were located in Leningrad, Zagorsk, and Odesa, rather than in Kyiv, Poltava, or Lviv, was also evidence of this policy. This was because most Ukrainian christians lived in western and central Ukraine.    

Metropolitan Onufriy does not take these facts into account, just as he never agreed with the idea that Ukraine was a colony within the USSR. And that for more than 9 years, Russia has been trying to restore this status of our state, seeking to destroy Ukraine's independence and exterminating our nation.

Rhetoric of 2019

At the end of his explanations, Onufriy reiterated that he "condemns Russia's war against Ukraine" and is deeply grateful to "those Russians who accepted me when my Ukraine turned away from me." He knows that "today, both in Russia and in Ukraine, there are many good and wonderful people who do not speculate on the war, but sincerely condemn it as a phenomenon that does not bring people together, but rather divides them. Let there be more such people than those who approve of the war or use it to their benefit."

After a year of large-scale war, the head of the UOC (MP) should change his tune and stop talking about "war profiteering" by millions of Ukrainians who have stood up to defend their state, freedom, and dignity. In the face of a mortal threat from Russia, which was blessed by Patriarch Kirill and all Russian bishops to wage war against Ukraine. Let me emphasize: not a single Russian bishop has condemned the war or Putin.

Just as Onufriy himself did not condemn Putin.

With his words about "approving the war" and "using it to their benefit," Onufriy took the pose of a politician, an election contestant, and an outspoken promoter of Russian interests in Ukraine. We all remember from 2019 the Moscow propaganda about the "party of war" in Kyiv and the rhetoric about "making money on war" that was supposed to destroy President Petro Poroshenko's support and cancel the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church.

Today, the head of the UOC (MP) directed the same words against the current Ukrainian government and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally. Let's hope that Bankova Street heard and understood the message.

That is why "Carthage must be destroyed." To protect Ukraine's independence and democracy, Bill No. 8221 "On Ensuring the Strengthening of National Security in the Field of Freedom of Conscience and Activities of Religious Organizations" should be adopted as soon as possible. The Russian Orthodox Church and its branch, the UOC (MP), should be banned by law.