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🇺🇦❌☦️🇷🇴 Ethnic Romanian priests belonging to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) say they were threatened by Ukrainian authorities with being sent to the frontlines as cannonfodder if they continue to demand to be let to join the Romanian Orthodox Church!

Three religious NGOs in Ukraine have written a joint letter to the Romanian president, Nicușor Dan, asking for his intervention in convincing Kiev to let the Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC) open a bishopric or vicariate in Cernăuți and let the parishes who wish to move away from the UOC to adhere to the ROC instead of joining the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU).

Ukraine has been stalling for months discussions with the ROC on the opening of a bishopric catering to the ethnic Romanian population of northern Bucovina, even placing a 3 year ban on the ROC's lawyer from entering Ukrainian territory.

So far three parishes have made steps to move away from the UOC and join the ROC, the parishes in the villages of Pătrăuții de Jos (Nyzhni Petrivtsi), Hrușeuți (Horoshivtsi) and Boian (Boiany) but they were forced to abandon this process by the Ukrainian administration who immediately threatened them that Kiev would come to their villages and mobilize every male they get their hands on and send them to the first trenches in the Donbas if they don't back down.

None of the parishes broke Ukrainian law when they tried to disassociate from the UOC yet Ukrainian authorities have a problem when people respect their laws.

The Ukrainian State Service for Ethnic Policies and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) is the one responsible with analysing the documentation provided by the ROC which is trying to register itself with the Ukrainian state, but the DESS is deliberately delaying this process, ignoring every single term mandated by Ukrainian laws. Meanwhile every time the OCU seizes a Romanian church, the DESS approves the "disassociation" with the UOC and the association with the OCU in a matter of days.

The Holy Synod of the ROC is aware that the DESS is doing everything to block the creation of a Romanian bishopric in northern Bucovina and was even threatened by the DESS to recognise the schismatic OCU and instruct the ethnic Romanian priests in Cernăuți to join it instead of pursuing the creation of a bishopric.

On June 26th, the Ukrainian ambassador in Romania, Igor Prokopchuk, told the state news agency, AGERPRES, that he encourages the ROC to recognise the OCU and enter a schism with Moscow. ROC doesn't recognise the OCU and never will as, in its most recent press release, the ROC reiterated its commitment to help the Romanian community in northern Bucovina reintegrate into the ROC and it has informed the relevant Romanian institutions about the threats the DESS made to it.

The Romanian MFA told RFE/RL that it has "maintained efforts to protect the religious and cultural identity of the Romanian community in northern Bucovina" and that they received assurances from the Ukrainian side that Kiev will not infringe on the rights of the Romanian minority but the reality on the ground is completely different to what the Ukrainians say and to what the Romanian MFA says. The MFA is passive and doesn't care because it is a mere tool of the foreign policy of Brussels which has decided three years ago that it will ignore the most egregious behaviour of the Ukrainians because they fight Russia.

In its statement, the Romanian MFA mentioned to RFE/RL that Russia is "seeking to create interethnic tensions" as if the Ukrainians haven't been doing that on their own. The Romanian MFA might as well be dissolved. If it doesn't speak up for the Romanian people when needed, what's the point in paying for it?

@Wallachian_Gazette