Manipulation, as if, According to Podolyak, the Russian Issue will be Solved by the Physical Elimination of pro-Russians

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On April 15-16, 2023, the Russian-language media outlets (ura.news, sm.news, tsargradtv), as well as the Facebook pages and the accounts, published a fragment of the interview of Mykhailo Podolyak, senior adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine. Articles and posts mention that, according to Podolyak, the physical elimination of all pro-Russian people will finally solve the Russian issue.

On April 18, the online publication “Georgia and World” published the same information based on the Telegram channel of former editor-in-chief of “Regnum” Yuriy Baranchik.

Some articles related to Podolyak’s statement (1, 2, 3) are accompanied by a fragment of an interview in which Podolyak talks about the physical cleansing of pro-Russians.

In fact, Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine, did not talk about the physical elimination of pro-Russian people. In the March 31 interview, which is being disseminated in a manipulative way, Podolyak talked about the physical cleansing of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate from pro-Russian clergy in the first months of the war.

On March 31, Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the office of the President of Ukraine, visited the Ukrainian channel “24 Канал.” In the interview, Podolyak talks about the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the influence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. According to Podolyak, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is a branch of the Russian Patriarchate whose task is to attack the Ukrainian state as vigorously as possible.

Podolyak also notes that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate does not want dialogue with the state and must remain an element of Russian influence in order to shake the Ukrainian state from within. It is in this context that Podoliak notes that in the first three to six months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine had the opportunity to physically cleanse the church of pro-Russian clergy. Now, he says, it’s more challenging to do, but still possible. He also noted that the Ukrainian government should follow this path quite strictly so that only one Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate) remains in Ukraine. Accordingly, Podolyak refers to the cleansing of the Ukrainian Church from pro-Russian clergy, and neither in this particular section nor in the full version of the interview is there any talk of the physical destruction of pro-Russian people.

Podolyak’s Statement in Ukrainian Podolyak’s Statement in English
“УПЦ не хоче діалогу, а хоче залишатися елементом російського впливу на українську державність, хочуть, щоб українська держава ніяк не регулювала те, що вони роблять, щоб українська держава була слабкою, яку вони будуть внутрішньо постійно провокувати й хитати.

У нас сьогодні є унікальний [шанс], да, мени видається, що цей унікальний шанс, коли можна було б взагалі все швидко й безболісно вилікувати протягом перших 3–6 місяців війни. Тоді можна було багато проросійських  просто фізично зачистити.
Сьогодні це трошки складніше. Та це не означає “неможливо”. І ми маємо сьогодні юридично вмотивовано, достатньо жорстко пройтися по цьому шляху.”

“The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate does not want dialogue; they want to remain an element of Russian influence on Ukrainian statehood. Their desire is that the state does not regulate what they do in any way, so that Ukraine is weak, which will be shaken from the inside and constantly provoked.

Today we have a unique chance, yes, it seems to me (I think) this unique chance, when we could heal everything quickly and painlessly, [it was] during the first 3-6 months of the war, then it was possible to physically cleanse the church from many pro-Russians.”

Podolyak noted that the state had made a legal decision regarding the legal status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. This is a national reserve, and the state will legally and legitimately decide who should use the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra in a ritual sense. According to Podoliak, despite claims of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate that they separated from the Russian Church and did not support the Russian Church’s call to kill Ukrainians, it was all fiction, and they revealed their true colours during the war.

Clerics of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate had to leave the territory of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra by March 29, 2023, as the reserve terminated the lease agreement with the representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate due to repeated violations of its terms. Nevertheless, the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate were in no hurry to leave the Kyiv-Pechery Lavra and threatened President Volodymyr Zelensky. Mykhailo Podoliak spoke about these events on the air of Channel 24 on March 31, 2023.

It is not the first time when the statements of the advisers of the office of the President of Ukraine have been distributed in a manipulative manner. In the past, “Myth Detector” verified the false and manipulative quotes of the former adviser of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Oleksii Arestovych. For more information, see:

Archive Links:

საქართველო და მსოფლიო
ura.ru
sm.news
tsargradtv


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Topic: Politics
Violation: Manipulation
Country: Russia, Ukraine
Source

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