A group that advocates for the global Orthodox church has accused former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson of making "nonsensical" claims that Christians are persecuted in Ukraine.
The U.S.-based Orthodox Public Affairs Committee (OPAC) was responding to Carlson's interview with Mike Pence at the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday, June 14.
In a statement to Newsweek, OPAC said it had "deep concern" at how media personalities like Carlson "continue to spout Russian propaganda about so-called persecution of Christians in Ukraine."
Pence, who is seeking the GOP presidential nomination, was challenged by Carlson for his support of U.S. military aid for Kyiv to fight Russian aggression—a bone of contention between some conservatives and the Make America Great (MAGA) movement aligned with former President Donald Trump.
Carlson asked Pence, who served as vice president under Trump, whether during his June meeting in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he raised the issue of "persecuted Christians in Ukraine."
The former Fox News anchor said that the Ukrainian government had "raided convents" and has "effectively banned" the primacy in the country of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
"What I can tell you is I asked the Christian leader in Kyiv, if that [arresting Christians] was in fact happening, and he assured me that it was not. People were not being persecuted for their religious beliefs," the former vice president replied.
OPAC accused Carlson of distorting a religious dispute that has unfolded in Ukraine parallel to the war started by Russia.
"Carlson, who has little or no understanding of the complexities of the religious reality of Ukraine, only foments more division with his nonsensical statements," said the OPAC statement.
Newsweek has contacted Carlson by email for comment.
After the start of Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) cut ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, also known as the Moscow Patriarchate. The latter's primate, Patriarch Kirill, has faced global criticism for endorsing Putin and the war in Ukraine.
The UOC, one of three branches of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, has insisted it is loyal to Ukraine and opposes the war but Kyiv has maintained it has Kremlin links. The Ukrainian government sparked protests when, in March, it terminated the lease that allowed UOC monks to stay at monastery caves at Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra— Ukraine's most revered Orthodox site.
Abbot of the monastery, Metropolitan Pavel, was placed under house arrest in April, accused of Kremlin links, which he has denied. There were protests when UOC clergy and monastics were expelled from the Kyiv monastery over concerns some may have been a Russian "fifth column" in Ukraine.
OPAC has repeatedly condemned Putin's invasion of Ukraine and what it says is Patriarch Kirill's complicity in it.
The group also noted that while the UOC may have separated from the Moscow Patriarchate, a million UOC adherents in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine may not have that choice. "This difficulty is further complicated by the fact that the Kyiv Caves Monastery is central to Ukrainian Orthodox identity," said OPAC in its statement to Newsweek,
OPAC has said that the dispute within the Orthodox Church in Ukraine caused by the war can be resolved. This would require, it says, integrating the UOC, which has split with Moscow, with the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, another of the faith's three branches in the country.
Newsweek has contacted the Ukrainian Internal Affairs Ministry for comment.
