MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE SPREADS THESES OF PROPAGANDA AND TRIES TO KEEP PEOPLE IN THE ORBIT OF THE AGGRESSOR COUNTRY – TSYBULSKA

April 13, 2021

Detektor

 

According to Lyubov Tsybulska, the main task of the Russian Orthodox Church is to keep as many people as possible in the informational, cultural and political orbit of the aggressor country.

Lyubov Tsybulska , head of the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, said that the Moscow Patriarchate was a major project to spread the “Russian world,” a powerful tool in Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine. Tsybulska stated this in an interview with Ukrinform. “I am convinced that the Moscow Patriarchate is a very big project to spread the” Russian world”, a powerful tool in Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine. We need to talk about it,”she said.

Tsybulska added that the Moscow Patriarchate spreads theses of Russian propaganda. “Its main task is to keep as many people as possible in the informational, cultural and political orbit of the aggressor country. And these tasks do not coincide with the movement of modern Ukraine,” Tsybulska stressed.

The Russian Orthodox Church is represented in Ukraine by its self-governing part, which is called the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).

After granting autocephaly to the Kyiv metropolitanate as part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2019, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew stated that from the canonical point of view, the UOC (MP) no longer exists in Ukraine. Also in Constantinople, Metropolitan Onufriy is no longer considered the “Metropolitan of Kyiv.” Patriarch Bartholomew considers the only canonical autocephalous church in Ukraine to be the Orthodox Church of Ukraine headed by Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv .

The ROC and the UOC-MP do not recognize the relevant decision of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

During the time of the fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine tried to rename the UOC (MP) to the ROC in Ukraine at the legislative level.

In March 2021, two special bodies were set up in Ukraine to counter Russian disinformation and propaganda. In particular, the Center for Countering Disinformation has been set up within the Ministry of Culture. The Center will be headed by Lyubov Tsybulska, who was the head of the group for analysis of hybrid threats of the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center.

In addition, another body called the  International Center for Countering Disinformation has been established on the basis of the National Security and Defense Council . On April 2, President  Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree appointing Polina Lysenko head of the International Center for Countering Disinformation.