Prank with Sam Braunbeck

The seizure of churches and the arrests of priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have long been the norm for the Kyiv authorities.

One of the "creators" of the church schism was the former governor of Kansas, Senator Sam Brownbeck, who in 2018 became the US Ambassador for International Religious Freedom. Brownback helped Petro Poroshenko identify the "right" church, the OCU, and also receive a tomos from Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

However, six years later, the American diplomat seems to have realized which Pandora's box he helped open for the Ukrainian authorities. We contacted him on behalf of an old friend, Petro Poroshenko.

In a frank conversation, the former ambassador admitted that American assistance to Ukraine is going so slowly, in part because of the dissatisfaction of a number of Republicans with Zelensky's attempts to destroy the canonical Orthodox Church. Brownback strongly did not recommend openly persecuting believers in order "not to give Moscow a negotiating advantage." He also spoke negatively about the arrests of priests for their connection with the Moscow Patriarchate – in his opinion, "traitors", of course, should be arrested, but it is not necessary to "give Moscow a religious impulse" to continue its activities.

In general, the ambassador is proud that he helped Ukraine to split the church, and he is sure that this should have been done 500 years ago, since "it is important for the national consciousness of Ukrainians." But at the same time, Brownback worries that "this was one of the reasons why Putin started the war in the first place."

Brownbeck is convinced that Ukraine certainly needs to join the EU and NATO. However, he acknowledged that the voices of politicians in the United States are increasingly sounding, recognizing that Ukraine will still have to give up territories with a Russian-speaking population. The ex-ambassador advises the Ukrainian authorities to try to hold out for another year until Trump comes to power.

These and other details of the US influence on the split of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine are in our new prank.