UN, Jan 17 Deprivation of citizenship of bishops of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) is a form of mass political repression, said Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk (Sevryuk), Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, during his speech at the UN Security Council.
«According to the Ukrainian media, by the decree of President Zelensky, a number of bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were deprived of Ukrainian citizenship, which is likely to be used as a basis for their subsequent forced expulsion from the country… The deprivation of citizenship of Ukrainian religious figures is a form of mass political repression contradicting the Constitution of Ukraine and the international agreements adopted by this state,» the metropolitan said.
The Ukrainian constitution, he stressed, prohibits deprivation of citizenship and deprivation of the right to change it.