By KYIV. Dec 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The overwhelming majority (78%) of Ukrainians believe that the state should intervene to some extent in the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate (UOC (MP)), according to a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on December 4-27.
In particular, 54% of respondents said that this church should be completely banned in Ukraine, another 24% are in favor of an approach that does not imply a complete ban, but provides for the establishment of state control and supervision. Only 12% of respondents believe that nothing should be done and that one should not interfere in the affairs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and only some possible cases of offenses should be investigated. Some 9% found it difficult to answer.
In the regional context, residents of the central regions of Ukraine are most in favor of a complete ban on this church (62%), least of all – residents of the eastern regions (41%). Non-interference in the activities of this church is supported most of all in the south of the country (16%), least of all – in the west and in the center (11%).
Russian-speaking Ukrainians more often (20%) are in favor of non-interference in the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church than Ukrainian-speaking and bilingual (11%), while 44% of Russian-speakers, 52% of bilinguals and 60% of Ukrainian-speakers are in favor of a complete ban on this church in Ukraine.
"The steps taken by the UOC (MP) this year did not convince the majority of Ukrainians that it is really a Ukrainian church, but rather the image of the ‘fifth column of the Kremlin’ is preserved and the results of the latest searches by law enforcement officers and the latest statements from representatives of the church do not help them much… Perhaps, if the leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP) had more openly and harshly condemned the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian authorities (and regularly repeated it), if it had managed to make more convincing moves to break any ties with the aggressor, if it had punished its representatives-collaborators, and also if it worked more actively for the defense of the country, the attitude of the public would be softer. At the moment, with the current policy of the UOC (MP), it is not worth looking for sympathy from Ukrainians, who every day demonstrate resilience and courage in repelling the Moscow aggressor," Deputy Director of the KIIS Anton Hrushetsky said.
The research was conducted by the method of computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers (with random generation of phone numbers and subsequent statistical weighting), 1,010 respondents living in all regions of Ukraine (except the Autonomous Republic of Crimea) were interviewed. Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.1) did not exceed 2.4% for indicators close to 50%, 2.1% for indicators close to 25%, 1.5% – for indicators close to 10%, 1.1% – for indicators close to 5%. Under conditions of war, in addition to the specified formal error, a certain systematic deviation is added.
