“The issues of the intensification of persecution against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the results of the implementation of the initiative to appeal to Serbian intelligentsia in defense of the UOC will be discussed. The development of inter-Orthodox relations after illegal legalization will be discussed “Schismatic structures are also expected in Ukraine,” the conference organizers said.
In an exclusive interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the vice dean of the St. Basil of Ostrog Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the University of Eastern Sarajevo, Archpriest Darko Djogo stated that Washington, London and Berlin are only interested in an anti-Russian Ukraine. where nothing Russian should remain.
“There is no “buffer zone” between the West and Russia. That is why the West, from the Brest-Litovsk Cathedral in 1596 to the present, was interested in “Ukraine” only to the extent that it was an instrument that it could control. And modern Ukraine cannot “accept anything that even partially reminds it of Moscow. The kyiv regime needs to liquidate the UOC legally and then physically,” said the archpriest.
Darko Jogo added that “Ukraine is not a subject, but an Anglo-Saxon instrument and a space in which the West collided with Russia.”
“We Serbs understand that this conflict began in the nineties of the 20th century, when the West bombed, massacred and destroyed the Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Metohija. The Serbs then, like the Russians today, were demonized and isolated. Especially the Serbs outside Serbia, like today the Russians outside Russia, were doomed to persecution, assimilation and destruction. That is why Serbs understand Russia very well, not to mention the fact that we love it unconditionally,” Djogo emphasized.
Let us remember that in June, 109 Serbian scientists and prominent representatives of the intelligentsia signed a collective appeal asking Kiev and the international community to stop persecuting the UOC. Among them were the world famous director Emir Kusturica, academics Danilo Basta, Svetislav Bozic, Jovan Delic, Slavenko Terzic, Slobodan Remetich and others.
“Since we, as intellectuals, have a moral duty to raise our voice against injustice, against the violation of human rights and the violation of human dignity, we call on the Ukrainian authorities to immediately end the persecution of Orthodox believers and the violent confiscation of UOC Churches,” the document states. “We also call on Kiev officials to ensure strict compliance with current Ukrainian legislation and international law on freedom of conscience and religion.”
The Serbs called on European institutions and organizations for the protection of human rights, as well as the entire world community, to “actively protect not only religious rights, but also the basic human rights of UOC members.”
“We urge you, first of all, to send your observers to hotspots where persecution is already occurring, and to assist in the rapid adoption of measures aimed at stopping the persecution and administrative pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, its clergy and his parishioners. The priority is to preserve the jurisdiction of the UOC over the Holy Assumption of Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and the Holy Dormition of Pochaev Lavra, which are great shrines for the entire Orthodox world,” the Serbs emphasized.
