Vadym Novynskyi: Zelensky’s Mission to End Christianity in Ukraine & Why America Is Still Funding It
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Thank you for joining us. I think very few Americans understand the degree to which the Ukrainian government under Zelensky has persecuted the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Can you give us an overview of what your government has done to your church? Unfortunately,

Unfortunately, our government, led by Zelensky, has opened up a campaign of persecution and depression against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the largest church in Ukraine, the largest denomination of Christians in Ukraine. Before the war, there were 12,000 parishes and 7 million believers in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

And despite the fact that it's the largest denomination and that 95-97% voted for Zelensky as the President of Peace, he is doing this to our Church. He's persecuting and oppressing our Church.

Over the past 10 years, persecution has intensified. And currently, right now, it is leading to terrible consequences. As you know, in parliament, a law has been passed which actually, in fact, bans the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

So our archbishops are subjected to persecution, there are completely false criminal cases opened up against them, our parishioners beaten, our church is taken away, so Satanism is flourishing in Ukraine. So some metropolitans are in prison, some are under house arrest, some examples are metropolitan Arseny, who's currently in prison,

who's the head of the Sovetogorsk Collaborative, he's in prison under completely false accusations. Metropolitan Firozsi, Metropolitan Luka, Metropolitan Anthony, they're all under house arrest. Another big example is Metropolitan Longinus, who actually has an orphanage in his church, which has more than 600 disabled children. He's a man of love and he's still being persecuted, all for being faithful to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Every day churches and temples are seized by soldiers with machine guns who come in, who throw out priests, beat believers, children, old people, women, countless priests, countless attempts of Chernovitskyi, which is a temple that's been attempted to be taken over. So every day it is happening all over Ukraine.

At the moment, there are attempts to seize the Cathedral in Chernovskaya Street. And of course, this cannot help but feel deeply dissatisfied with these events. And one cannot help but fear that our churches may continue to experience this persecution from the government. How can I tell you? The danger that our church may be further subjected to this persecution by the authorities.

Why do you suppose Zelensky is doing this? What is his motive? It is important to understand the atmosphere that currently prevails in the country. It is basically inciting hatred is the basis of politics.

The hatred that is based on lies, deceit. Our church tells the truth. Our church exposes sin, and our church basically is, right now, it's a favorable time for our church. Everyone can show their loyalty and faith despite all the persecution, despite all of the oppression. We pray for the authorities. We pray for Zelensky, that at one point they may come to their senses and stop.

We truly hope that Zelensky may fulfill his promise and restore religious peace because 95-97% voted for Zelensky, voted for him as a peace president and for him to stop the religious hatred going on in our country. This is a very grateful time for us. And we, of course, despite all the persecution, all the oppression, all the beatings, all the capture, all the crimes that are happening around our church,

Why do you think the world has ignored this attack on Christianity in Ukraine? I can tell you that a year ago it was impossible to say a word of truth in the Western press, even the American press, about what is happening to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. There was a whole block on the truth of what is happening in religious life in Ukraine. And the first person to break this wall of silence was you. Silence is painful.

who invited Robert Amsterdam, who is the official representative of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who began speaking the truth, and you broadcast this truth. And for this, thank you. And a big thank you to JD Vance, who, while he was still a congressman, raised his voice in support of our Church. He was the only politician in the West who defended our Church.

At that time, it was extremely important for us. But apart from you, no other serious publication would publish and would show what kind of attacks are taking place on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

because zielinski was given a vote of confidence and in the eyes of the western public he became a leader of the nation and anything that he was doing was accepted without question but zielinski is

Not an elected president at this point. He's gone past his term and there has been no election. So he has, from what I can tell, no authority to do this. By what authority is he doing this? Well, he's an official who has usurped himself.

Well, it's the authority that he usurped for himself. Basically, in accordance with the Constitution, there's an elected term of five years, and the president cannot be elected for more than that. This decision was made in May 2014, but everyone forgot about it. Now the Constitutional Court is not working. It was destroyed by Zelensky. So there's no way to confirm or affirm. There's no way to basically legitimize his role.

And no one can give any additional verdict on this topic.

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Just appearing on your show, I already have an understanding that I will be further persecuted by the Zelensky government authorities.

As you know, I'm under sanctions. I was personally sanctioned by Zelensky. He signed three decrees imposing sanctions on me under various pretexts. I have various criminal investigations going on against me for false and groundless accusations.

And after this interview, and after I say what I think is happening in our country, I am sure that there will be more persecution against me. But I'm not afraid. It's actually illegal to impose sanctions against a Ukrainian citizen. There's only one instance where you can, which is when it's been proven that he was financing terrorist activities.

So right now sanctions are our president's favorite weapon. He likes to hit whoever he can with them: any opponents, critics, businessmen, religious leaders. So based on religious principles, I've been sanctioned based on religious principles for my support of the church for the last 20 years. I've been put in a list with other religious individuals as the senior deacon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. I'm number one on that list.

The judicial branch is not functioning and is currently paralyzed. There are no laws at present. As the president said, the constitution has been put on pause. So these are indicators that currently there is a dictatorship. Borders on the rights and freedoms of citizens.

A citizen's rights and freedoms are restricted. There is no freedom of speech. It is understandable that during wartime a person can't fully have freedom of speech, but the President and his administration have fully monopolized the right to freedom of speech. Rights are restricted, courts are not working. All of these are indications of dictatorship.

People are subjected to forced mobilization, where men are taken off the street, put in buses, and then sent to the front lines. And the Ukrainian society, Ukrainian people, are living in an atmosphere of fear.

So because if you express criticism of Zelensky, then you have the secret police come in the next day and you will be subjected to persecution. Of course, in wartime it is essential for society to be united. Instead he divides them based on various criteria. So religion, history, culture, heroes, language. Society is divided.

It's a very unfair policy of the vision when it should be unification. The United States is paying for all of this to happen. The Speaker of the House of the United States Congress is a man who describes himself as a Christian, and he's been paying for this.

His name is Speaker Johnson. I'm wondering if there's something that you'd like to say to him and other Christians in the U.S. Congress about the fact the money they send is being used to extinguish the largest Christian denomination. What would you say to them? I would like to wish that the assistance and the funds that are provided keep being provided to the Ukrainian people, because right now the Ukrainians are struggling for survival.

They're struggling for the survival of their families. You have to understand that the Ukrainian authorities, they live in parallel realities. The Ukrainian people are thinking of how to survive, how to feed their families, how to be happy. And it's a completely different reality to the Ukrainian authorities. The authorities live a different life, so they profit from war.

And the national idea of the Ukrainian elite is to steal money and to spend it abroad. It would be great if the money that was sent was spent optimally and to help the people. And for this, ultimately, we need to keep an eye on the way that the money is being spent and the way it is used so that it's actually used for the benefit of the people rather than for the Ukrainian elite.

Also, it would be good if the money that comes in, if we don't spend it to support those who are seizing our churches. The only canonical church in Ukraine, the largest denomination, the thousand-year-old church that is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

We have seen reports that Zelensky and his family have become rich during the war. Do you believe those reports are true? So we have a saying, there is no smoke without fire. And if some information comes out,

then it means there's a possibility of it happening. However, I can't say yes or I can't say no. I can't confirm or deny. There has to be irrefutable evidence for us to be able to confirm it.

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We have also received reports that the Ukrainian government has sold some number of NATO weapons. Have you heard that and do you believe it's true? I have no information on this. I can't confirm or refute this. You have to be very immersed in this issue and to be in Ukraine to understand whether that is true or false. Yes.

How long have you known Zelensky? Well, I think a lot of people have known Zelensky well before he became president, when he was one of the best or one of the most important people in the entertainment industry. He played serious roles in TV shows and he was a very important entertainer in Ukraine.

I never personally encountered him, but we became known to each other after he became president. He ran as the peace candidate, you said. What happened? How did that change?

So in the elections he received 73% of the votes. 73% of people who voted for him wanted peace. He actually said in his inauguration speech, for the sake of peace, I'm ready to sacrifice my fame, my popularity, my rating, and my position of my post, if I have to, if it will help bring peace. He also said the following, that I've been making Ukrainians smile, and for the next five years, I want to make sure that they don't cry.

So instead, right now, what do you see? Instead of smiles on their faces, there are tears on their faces. And instead of giving up his position, he's turning into a dictator. And there's no peace in the country. There's war under him. War came to Ukraine during his presidency. And did he do everything to avoid it? That's a question that many people have begun asking. Obviously not voicing it, but in secret, because they could face persecution.

Many are publicly asking it. Unfortunately, that is the case. When Zelensky said in the winter of 2022 that he wanted Ukraine to join NATO, he knew that Russia would come across the border if...

Ukraine joined NATO, but he said it anyway. Why do you think he did that? So what is the base for Ukrainian sovereignty? It's actually the declaration of sovereignty where it says that Ukraine will have a non-aligned status, so it will not be part of a bloc. It will not have a bloc status and will never join any military alliance.

But in 2018, during the election campaign, Poroshenko, the former president, he made changes to the constitution regarding Ukraine's desire to join NATO. This contradicted the basic declaration, when in the beginning Ukraine made the declaration to be sovereign and independent.

Zelensky knew perfectly well that constantly mentioning that we wanted to be members of NATO would annoy our northern neighbor. And he knew that eventually there could be an invasion and war. When I was deputy in the parliament, I said, if anything were to happen like this, then Russia would go all the way. But nevertheless, he kept mentioning it and made it an option. In one of my interviews, when I was still a national deputy, I said that if Russia

And it would have been possible to avoid war had Ukraine implemented the obligations that it took on by the Minsk agreements, in accordance with which Donetsk and Lugansk received a certain autonomous status within Ukraine.

But despite the adoption of the Minsk agreement in 2015, we kept stretching out its actual implementation for seven years and actively build an anti-Russia in Ukraine.

I'm in no way justifying Russia and the Russian authorities that they did this act of aggression upon Ukraine. The issue is different. The Ukrainian people entrusted their power to Zelensky, that he will not allow a war into the country and that he will provide peace. The task of authorities is to ensure safe conditions in the country and good conditions for development and growth, and to ensure security of its borders.

And to try to live in peace, or at least be neutral with all of its neighbors. Unfortunately, it was Poroshenko who began this, and then Zelensky continued because he's his worst copy. But they got into arguments with all of their neighbors, so Russia, Belarus, Hungary, Slovenia had a whole lot of arguments with Poland.

Was Zelensky prepared for the Russian invasion? Did he know it was coming? So as you know, I'm here for the following reason. That a week ago, Zelensky accused me of serious charges that during the beginning of the invasion, by phone, I tried to force him to surrender, to give up territory, to basically betray his homeland in accordance with Ukrainian law.

And I could say that until the very end, Zelensky denied that aggression from Russia was possible, despite the fact that he had irrefutable evidence from Western counterparts from intelligence within Ukraine.

However, he didn't do anything to prevent it, because obviously it's impossible to prepare for a war in such a short time, but it's also difficult to fight against such a stronger enemy, so some preventative measures should have been taken. I had the data from both Western and Ukrainian intelligence.

On the 23rd of February, a day before the full-scale invasions, Zelenskyy gathered together at his Oval Table in the office of the President all of the representatives of the business. And there he tried to persuade everyone that there's going to be no invasion, no war, and that them as government authorities are going to do everything possible for this war not to happen.

and when I was given a chance to speak I said that we had listened to reports from the security block the security forces and that if there's at least one chance and a thousand for us to do something to prevent this war then we should definitely do it because the information we heard was alarming and we must do everything possible to prevent this from happening because Ukraine needs peace people need peace we

And the next day, at 5 a.m., the invasion began. The war started. I was in Kiev. My whole family was in Kiev. By then, it all started. How many Ukrainians have been killed in this war, do you believe? No one knows the exact figure. The only one that knows the exact figure is God. He knows exactly how many. Unfortunately, no one knows the exact figure.

there are official numbers that have been voiced personally by zielinski there are numbers that have been calculated in the western press by western war analysts there are numbers that are going around the ukrainian people but no one knows the exact number i've heard it could be tens of thousands hundreds of thousands but no one knows the exact number but the number whatever it is is going on too much

Are you concerned that given how many Ukrainians have died and have left, that foreigners will move into your country, that you will get huge migration into Ukraine?

To be honest, right now I'm more concerned about peace in Ukraine and an end to this awful war and to the end of the loss of life. We honestly pray for this, for peace to reach our country. And I'd like to just thank President Trump for having the political will and the strong desire to end this war, because five months ago it was impossible to say that there would be negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

And right now they're going on and new plans for negotiations are emerging. And all of this is thanks to Trump's strong will. Basically with Trump, the US has begun to export peace to Ukraine. And as for migrants, I would just like for all Ukrainians to return home.

And after we've reached peace through joint efforts to rebuild Ukraine together and make it back into the peaceful, hardworking, flourishing country that it was 10 years ago. Can you reach a peace settlement with Zelensky running your government? Is that possible?

It will be very difficult to achieve, even with the strong will and influence of President Trump. Because on the path to peace, unfortunately, the biggest obstacle right now is Zelensky himself, as well as his close circle. Well, because when peace comes, there's a high probability that Zelensky will lose his power.

Many will start asking questions when peace comes, like, why was the war allowed to happen? Why wasn't the Istanbul Agreement signed? Because we all know the essence of what was agreed to in Istanbul. And had it been agreed to and had it been signed, there would not have been hundreds of thousands of lives lost. There wouldn't have been a threat to the sovereignty of Ukraine. There would not have been such destruction. And there would not have been a loss of territory, which might happen now. If they were realized,

there would be no hundreds of thousands of victims, there would be no such amount of destruction in Ukraine, there would be no threat to the statehood of Ukrainians.

If we trace the history of the signings of various agreements, starting from the Minsk agreement and then to the Istanbul agreement, unfortunately with every agreement, the terms and conditions of the agreements deteriorated for Ukraine. They were worse and worse. They became more unfavorable. And unfortunately, if there is another agreement, which I hope there is, but unfortunately the conditions will be even more unfavorable. But a lot of lives have been lost in the process and a lot of blood has spilled.

My last question, thank you for taking the time to do this interview, is what can Christians around the world do to help you, churches around the world, believers around the world, do to help you as you try to prevent Zelensky from extinguishing Christianity in Ukraine?

In this process of persecution against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, unfortunately, a large part has been taken by the ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Unfortunately, they're doing this together. And the fact that not once has he raised his voice and supported the Ukrainian Orthodox Church despite all of its persecution proves that he is actually involved in all of this.

But we do receive a lot of support. We receive a lot of support from the Jerusalem Church, the Georgia Church, the Serbian Church and their patriarchs. And we receive a lot of brotherly love and support and a lot of prayer because that is our main strength, prayer. And the church will not be defeated. A true canonical church will not be defeated. The communists cannot defeat us in the 20th century because Christ is the church. The head of the church is Christ.

and consequences will be bad for those who oppose him. And we will pass these trials, and we will be purified, and we are very grateful to you and for everyone doing anything for our church. Amen. Nicely put. And many are praying for you. Thank you for telling us about the darkness in Ukraine. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

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