Ukraine is persecuting the Orthodox just like it did during communism, a false narrative launched by a Moscow Patriarchate spokesman reads. The narrative also tries to promote the idea that the Patriarchate is unbiased and opposes the “fratricidal” war in Ukraine. In fact, the Moscow Patriarchate has been acting as a propaganda channel for the Kremlin, whereas Ukrainian authorities were merely trying to investigate possible connections between the Patriarchate and Russian secret services, on the one hand, and certain clergymen in Ukraine, on the other.
Propaganda: Orthodox believers are persecuted in Ukraine
NEWS: “The Orthodox Church of Ukraine hates everything Russian. This armed conflict, which is moving further away from a peaceful resolution, serves its interest, says Vakhtang Kipshidze, the deputy head of the Russian Orthodox Church Synod Press Department. […]
At the same time, the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church towards the special military operation is based on the conviction that we are witnessing a fratricidal war triggered by external forces. Some Russian chaplains died on the battlefield, killed by foreign weapons. […]
The political regime in Kyiv has destroyed the Ukrainian Orthodox Church without giving it a second thought, just because it existed. Such far-reaching oppression was one of the policies of war communism during the religious persecution campaigns of the 1930s. […]
All we can do now is pray. Our communion of prayer will greatly help the people who have been persecuted for many years”.
NARRATIVES: 1. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is persecuted by Kyiv, as it was in the communist era. 2. The conflict in Ukraine is a fratricidal war. 3. The Russian Orthodox Church prays for Ukrainians who are subject to persecution.
Fact: Kyiv plans to restrict the activity of religious organizations affiliated to Russia for the duration of the war.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: After searches were conducted in Orthodox dioceses and monasteries subordinated to the Moscow Patriarchate prior to the war, the Russian government media launched a number of false narratives about the persecution targeting Orthodox believers in Ukraine, arguing that the “special military operation” is designed not just to save Russian speakers, but also the Orthodox from the “Nazi regime” in Kyiv.
According to Ukrainian authorities, this is not an instance of persecution targeting the Orthodox in Ukraine, but merely an inquiry into religious institutions subordinated to Moscow. Representatives of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) claim they have discovered “Russian passports, propaganda literature and permits” issued by occupation authorities. They identified documents that confirm certain members of the Orthodox Church have Russian citizenship. Additionally, the SBU say they have found correspondence between clergymen in Ukraine and their handlers in Moscow. The letters included recommendations regarding sermons delivered in mass in the context of the war in Ukraine.
An expert committee set up by the Government of Ukraine revealed in January that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church remains a substructure of the Russian Orthodox Church. “Benefiting from certain rights and liberties, this structure is not however an autocephalous Church”, the experts concluded. They claim that the relation between the Ukrainian Church and the Moscow Patriarchate is one of subordination, not cooperation.
Kyiv’s fears regarding the existence of a network of foreign agents working from within the church are overall legitimate in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. According to Ukrainian officials, searches carried out in dioceses across Kirovohrad and Oleksandriia identified materials that promoted and popularized separatist ideas. The former secretary of the Odesa diocese, Andrei Novikov, fled to Russia. Novikov has a Telegram account where he disseminates Russian propaganda narratives and discredits Ukrainian armed forces.
Therefore, we are not witnessing a persecution campaign against the Orthodox population in Ukraine, but a comprehensive investigation into the connections between religious structures in Ukraine and Moscow. At the same time, no Orthodox church was shut down in Ukraine, and the rights of parishioners have not been restricted in any way.
The Russian Orthodox Church has given its blessing to the war in Ukraine from the first days of the large-scale invasion, causing a public outrage in Ukraine. In September 2022, the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus’, Kirill, gave the coordinator of the Russian Guard involved in military operations in Donbas an icon that would protect the defenders of the “Russian world”.
The false narrative launched by representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church makes an artificial distinction between the war and the “special military operation” in order to manipulate public opinion. According to the press department of the Russian Orthodox Church Synod, Moscow launched the “special operation” to stop the West’s war in Ukraine. These are the terms Kremlin propaganda uses to define the war, just as it endorses the concept of “fratricidal war”, which suggests that Ukrainians and Russians are one and the same people. These Kremlin-linked thesis is further proof that the Russian Orthodox Church is by and large one of the Kremlin’s propaganda channels. It’s also worth noting that, over the years, the media has investigated the Russian Patriarch’s ties to the KGB and the FSB, both secret services being associated with president Vladimir Putin.
The West has repeatedly expressed its commitment to support Ukraine in this war and to stop the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. Therefore, the actions of the USA, NATO and the EU came in response to the “special military operation” launched against a sovereign state.
Veridica has debunked several false narratives about the war in Ukraine. The Russian media wrote that Moscow should mobilize to defeat NATO in the new “war for the defense of the fatherland”, and that due to the Kyiv’s neo-Nazi propaganda, Ukrainians don’t understand Russia is here to liberate them. Russian propaganda tried to persuade the public back home that, starting November 2021, Moscow is rallying troops on the Ukrainian border in order to defend itself against a possible NATO aggression, being forced to save Donbas from the genocide orchestrated by Ukraine and the West.
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