Vita Tetrenko

Vita Tetrenko

Advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine, Senior Research Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Senior Research Fellow of the H. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Associate Professor.

Since approximately 2018, Vita Titarenko has been actively involved in the persecution of Orthodox believers. Using her status as a scholar of religion, the official justified violent crimes against Orthodox Christians.

In particular, Titarenko took part in concealing a crime committed by activists of the UOC KP in the village of Ptycha, Ternopil region.

Moreover, the religious scholar and official of the Presidential Office publicly used hate rhetoric against Orthodox Christians and also publicly called for reprisals against believers and clergy of the UOC.

On April 23, 2018, Titarenko took part in an off-site meeting of the Expert Council on Freedom of Conscience and the Activities of Religious Organizations in the city of Rivne.

A number of individuals who use hate rhetoric against believers and clergy of the UOC also participated in the meeting.

Titarenko herself stated that the main topic of the meeting was the raider seizure of the Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos of the UOC by activists of the UOC KP.

The religious scholar took direct part in concealing this crime, presenting the seizure of the church by a gang as a “conflict between believers.”

On May 17, 2022, on her Facebook page, Titarenko quoted an unidentified author who stated that belonging to the UOC is “repulsive and criminal.”

“Someone (forgive me, I no longer remember who) said very accurately: if earlier belonging to the UOC MP bordered on repulsiveness, now it is simply criminal!”

Titarenko also reflected on ways in which the clergy and believers of the UOC could disappear.

On March 24, 2023, on her Facebook page, Titarenko compared the existence of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery to the leasing of Ukrainian ports by the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation.

The unlawful termination of the lease agreement and the expulsion of monks from the monastery by representatives of the Ukrainian authorities were described by the religious scholar as a “restoration of justice.”

On May 18, 2024, on her Facebook page, Titarenko supported the destruction of the Church of Saints Volodymyr and Olha of the UOC in Kyiv.

The religious scholar disparagingly referred to the church as a “kiosk-church” (“MAF-church”).

From December 7 to 18, 2025, during her speech at the forum “Resilient Europe: Forum on Countering Russian Disinformation and Propaganda” in Brussels, Titarenko called for violations of international law.

“At the other day, a statement by UN experts on the persecution of the UOC in Ukraine appeared on the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which explicitly states: ‘Freedom of opinion, conscience, and religion is non-derogable even during armed conflict.’
That is, once again, Europeans are being instilled with the idea that national security is not grounds for limiting the manifestation of this freedom.”

In effect, Titarenko called for ignoring the UN expert conclusion, which states:

“In accordance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the European Convention on Human Rights (ratified by Ukraine in 1997), national security cannot be regarded as a legitimate aim for restricting freedom of religion.”

(Source: Sofiyske Brotherhood)