The Ukrainian security services (SBU) announced on Wednesday December 14 that they were taking “
counterintelligence measures
” in Orthodox religious buildings dependent on the Russian Church.
Nineteen monasteries, cathedrals and churches belonging to the Orthodox Church under the Patriarchate of Moscow are concerned by these measures which aim to "
counter the subversive activities of the Russian secret services in our country
", wrote the SBU in a press release.
These religious centers are in the regions of Transcarpathia, Chernivtsi, Rivne, Volyn, Lviv (west), Zhytomyr (central-west) Mykolaiv and Kherson (south) and Sumy (north), he pointed out.
The SBU explained that it was thus seeking to “
protect the population against provocations and terrorist attacks
” as well as to “
prevent the use of religious communities as centers of the Russian world
”.
A concept created by Moscow in particular to try to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine by the need to attach this country to Russia in order to form a Russian-speaking and Orthodox whole.
Read alsoUkraine accuses the Orthodox Church of collaborating with Russia
SBU agents were conducting searches on the spot with the aim of “
identifying persons who may be involved in illegal activities detrimental to the sovereignty of the State of Ukraine
”.
At the beginning of December, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he wanted to ban the activities on Ukrainian territory of religious organizations affiliated with Russia and to question the status of the Orthodox Church under the Patriarchate of Moscow.
Since November the Ukrainian authorities have already carried out a series of searches in several other places of worship of this same Church, including the monastery housing the residence of its primate in kyiv.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has also introduced sanctions against about fifteen dignitaries of this confession for their positions in favor of Moscow or their collaboration with the Russian occupation forces.
Ukraine, a country whose population is predominantly Orthodox, is divided between a Church dependent on the Patriarchate of Moscow - which announced it was severing its ties with Russia at the end of May as a result of the invasion - and a Church independent of the tutelage Russian.
Created at the end of 2018, the latter has pledged allegiance to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which has its headquarters in Istanbul.
Ukraine is central to the Russian Church, with some of the most important Orthodox monasteries located there.