Petro Poroshenko reacted on social media to the outrageous story about an underground school operating under the cover of a Moscow Patriarchate monastery, which was uncovered by investigative journalists from the project “Slidstvo.Info.” According to the fifth President, the “Russian world” poisons the minds of Ukrainian children from within, and this requires a systematic response at the state level.
Source: PRYAMYI
“Right in the capital, Russian priests were calmly continuing to educate Ukrainian children in the atmosphere of the ‘Russian world.’ Russian films, Soviet textbooks, the Russian language under the label of ‘Slavic.’ Journalists from ‘Slidstvo.Info’ found an entire underground school right in a Moscow Patriarchate monastery,” Poroshenko wrote.
“For many, this provokes anger and resentment, but before obtaining the Tomos, the state had lived for decades under the monopoly of the Russian church. It is this system that we began to break. Imagine what it would have been like if the country had faced a full-scale invasion in that state, with the fifth column of the Russian Orthodox Church and the FSB across the country,” Poroshenko noted.
“To make such things impossible, to restore independence to our church — we fought for the granting of a true Tomos and invested significant effort in supporting and building the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. There is still much work ahead, but we have come a long way, and now Ukrainians have the opportunity to reject Russian religious influence,” Poroshenko writes.
“Because the ‘Russian world’ is not just propaganda on television. It is years of work with children. It is the habit of a foreign language as ‘normal.’ It is the romanticization of the Soviet past as ‘proper upbringing.’ It is an attempt to raise a generation that will later be told: ‘So what difference does it make?’ There is a difference. And it determines what Ukraine will be like in 10–15 years,” the fifth President warns.
“The state must immediately begin to take the issue of spiritual independence very seriously. We have moved this problem from a dead point and set a very correct direction. Moscow priests must not be allowed to poison the hearts and souls of young Ukrainians under the guise of fake ‘schools.’ Those who turn monasteries into platforms for ideological revenge must receive proper legal assessment. The Tomos brought Ukrainian believers freedom and dignity. But freedom does not exist on its own. It must be protected. Especially where children and the country’s future are concerned,” Petro Poroshenko concludes.