In Kharkiv, a Christmas tree has been put up in the underground where people have been hiding from Russian attacks for almost a year. In Kiev, a Christmas tree traditionally appeared in one of the central squares, but it was three times lower than those from previous years and without lighting; it was put up by businessmen. Of course, no mass events were organized throughout the country. This is how, with the war in the background, Christmas was celebrated in Ukraine.

In addition, in recent years, more and more Ukrainians celebrated Christmas not on January 7 (according to the Julian calendar, as in Russia and several other countries, such as Georgia and Serbia, which are in the Russian sphere of influence), but on December 25 (according to the Gregorian calendar) like most Christians in the world. Both of these days are currently bank holidays.

SIGN UP TO OUR PAGE One thing remained unclear: whether and how Christmas would be celebrated by the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UPC MP). The more so that the Security Service of Ukraine has been conducting regular searches in the buildings belonging to this Church throughout the country for several weeks. It was about cases of collaboration and cooperation with the aggressor.

Propaganda and Russian money

Officers of the Ukrainian services became interested in Moscow Patriarchate clergy as a video from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (a large monastery and church complex: partly a museum, and partly the seat of the head of the UPC MP – ed.) appeared on the Internet early November. In it, during a common prayer of priests and faithful the choir sang a song on “Russia and the Mother Rus’”. So the Lavra was searched; according to the SBU, pro-Russian literature, forged Ukrainian passports, cash in hryvnias, dollars and rubles were found there.

In the following weeks, there were many reports of new actions by the services; guardians of public order began checking dozens of objects of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in various regions - in the west, south and central part of the country. The largest search took place on December 14, when law enforcement officers simultaneously checked 19 church complexes in 9 regions. The findings were similar everywhere: propaganda materials, Russian textbooks and documents, correspondence with Russian “curators”, “certificates” issued to Russians, confirming their participation in the war against Ukraine, money, etc.

In early December, sixteen suspects were found in the branch of the Monastery of the Protection of the Mother of God (Pustynno-Mykloaivskyy Skit – Пустинно-Миколаївський скит) which is located in the Chernobyl zone - they stayed there illegally, because the complex is located in a restricted zone (which was entered by Russian troops at the beginning of the aggression). Camouflage netting, which is used to cover military objects and equipment, was also found. And in the liberated Kherson region, among the finds in one of the churches was a Russia’s golden coat of arms.

However, one of the searches in Bukovina was the most publicized: the secretary of the local diocese was caught at the moment of physical intercourse with a 17-year-old boy who sang in the local church choir. The case has greatly affected public opinion, especially since western Ukraine is traditionally a very religious region.

Reports on the cooperation of the Ukrainian clergy subordinated to the Moscow Patriarchate with the Russian occupier began to appear even before the aforementioned SBU inspections — that is, when the Ukrainian army began to liberate the territories occupied by Russia. Currently, all cases are under investigation, so the hierarchs of the UPC MP have the status of suspects. However, if proven guilty in court, they face at least 10 years of imprisonment.

The Security Service of Ukraine also reported on the proceedings in which the suspect is a metropolitan (one of the highest positions in the Orthodox Church), the head of one of the dioceses in the Vinnytsia region, who, according to the SBU, justified Russian aggression and incited interreligious hostilities. Fun fact: three days after the announcement of this information, the metropolitan posted a video on his Facebook profile in which he quoted his poems about Ukraine in Ukrainian (previously he communicated only in Russian and did not hide his ties with Russia).

The head of the SBU, Vasyl Maluk, stated at the end of October that since the beginning of the Russian aggression against the clergy of the UPC MP, 23 criminal cases had been initiated, and more than thirty clerics had already been charged (the number must have increased now, as Maluk’s statement was made before the searches began). One of them, a priest from Lysychansk (in the border region of Luhansk), has already been sentenced to 12 years in prison for directing the fire of Russian troops. And the National Security and Defense Council – NSDC imposed sanctions on some activists of the Moscow Patriarchate and instructed the government to prepare a draft law that would prevent religious organizations affiliated with the Russian Federation from operating in Ukraine (popularly known as the “Moscow Patriarchate Ban Act”).

On December 28, this draft was considered by a special committee and was recommended to the parliament for adoption. However, according to Ukrainian legislation, the Verkhovna Rada must vote on this issue in two readings, and if the parliament approves the document, it should be signed by the president and will enter into force only after its official publication. Commenting on the development of events, Volodymyr Zelensky said: “We are doing everything to ensure that the aggressor state does not have any string with which it could pull the Ukrainian society”.

However, in some places, local authorities turned out to be quicker and have already begun to ban the activities of the Church subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate in some regions – in particular, the Lviv region, and earlier Konotop, Brovary, Gorodek, Pereyaslav and several other cities. In practice, however, prohibitions by local authorities are of little effect because they do not have sufficient powers in this regard. The mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovy, has already explained that the decision of the regional council is only declarative.

Interestingly, in May, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate decided to administratively separate itself from the Russian Orthodox Church, which supports the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine and constantly spreads Kremlin propaganda. But this decision is purely formal: first, the Moscow Patriarchate has been disseminating Russian propaganda in Ukraine for years; secondly, the decision on the division was made with “maintaining the spiritual connection” between the two churches. Therefore, the Church, which so far has been directly subordinated to the Russian Church, in fact still remains dependent on it.

Is the Moscow Patriarchate losing influence?

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has always been in the sphere of Russian influence.

Until recently, the Ukrainian Church was divided. There were two separate, large Churches: one subordinated to the Kiev Patriarchate and the other to the Moscow Patriarchate (there was also a third, small, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church – ed.). A few years ago, a new structure appeared – the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU) – which received the so-called tomos, a document recognizing the independence (autocephaly) of the local church. The Kiev Patriarchate ceased to exist then, and its clergy joined the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (the clergy of the autocephalous Church did likewise – ed.).

However, the Ukrainian Church subordinated to Moscow did not want unification. Only some parishes joined the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but the structure of the UPC MP was preserved. This process accelerated with the beginning of Russian aggression: in a commentary for the media, the clergyman of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Mykhailo Omelyan, said that more than 1,200 communities of the Moscow Patriarchate joined the new Church, of which more than 600 after February 24.

For Volodymyr Zelensky, church policy has not been a priority so far. However, after reports about the cooperation of the clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate with the occupier, the situation changed. In addition to the aforementioned NSDC sanctions and the draft law on the banning of the PCU MP, which is being prepared in the parliament, one more noteworthy decision was made. Viktor Yelenskyy, a separate adviser for church affairs, was appointed in the Chancellery of the President. And the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra — with which the searches described earlier began — was registered as belonging to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The situation is complex: a new PCU monastery has been registered, but the buildings belonging to the “Moscow” Church have not yet been formally taken over. However, this is an important step: the Lavra has been considered the main center of Russian influence for many years, because it is from this monastery and church complex in the center of Kiev that the Moscow Patriarchate has been influencing Ukraine for years.

It is important to know that the Lavra is important for Russia from the propaganda point of view: the monastery, which began functioning in the 11th Century, is called one of the sources of Russian Orthodoxy (despite the fact that Moscow did not exist at the time of its creation).

Now the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be able to take over the remaining buildings of the Lavra (both religious organizations lease them from the state). The term of the lease of the premises by the Moscow Patriarchate is about to end. And at the end of December it turned out that the contract would not be renewed, that is, from January 1, the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate had to leave the temples it rented in the Lavra. The hierarchs have already appealed to Zelensky to oppose this decision.

In response, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, said he was surprised by the request. – Our society after February 24, 2022 demands justice. And if you hide your affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate, your ties to people who are praying on Russian territory that Russian soldiers kill us, then how can you even look Ukrainians in the eye? – he stated.

Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court upheld a law obliging the Church subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate to change its name in such a way as to clearly indicate its relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church. This law was passed in 2018, but then a group of MPs challenged it to court. Now it will no longer be possible to pretend that one is independent from Moscow. The only question is whether the Church will sooner change its name or will be banned.

– Olga Rusina from Kyiv
– Translated by Dominik Szczęsny-Kostanecki

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists