DISINFO: Kyiv is waging a creeping war against the Orthodox Church
SUMMARY
In addition to the war on the ground, Kyiv is waging another war to sever its historical, cultural, and religious ties with Russia. [...] it is precisely against religion that the Ukrainian authorities' post-European coup repression is being unleashed. According to State Department data, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has conducted over 50,000 investigations into the Ukrainian Orthodox Church since 2022 for alleged collaboration with Russia and has searched thousands of church buildings.
The pretext is accusations that church ministers are spreading “ideas that violate Ukraine's territorial integrity and incite religious hatred”. Thus began the arrests of bishops, clergy, and parishioners, culminating in parliament's approval in the summer of 2024 of a law barring the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from carrying out any activity. This measure even angered the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who in an official report defined this provision as “not compliant with international law” because “it represents a serious restriction affecting the ability of individuals to practice their faith, and Ukraine has not demonstrated the necessity and proportionality of this measure”. One story, among many, emblematic of what is happening is that of Metropolitan Arseny, a very well-known and respected religious figure throughout eastern Ukraine.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative portraying Ukraine’s leadership as an enemy of the Orthodox Church as well as pro-Kremlin historical revisionism claim about Kyivian Rus.
Both claims – that Ukraine is fighting the Orthodox Church and that Kyiv was the capital of Kyivan Rus, “the first state to unite the Slavic peoples” – have been made in the context of Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.
There is no persecution of the Orthodox Church. On 24 August 2024, the Ukrainian government signed a law banning churches affiliated with Russia, following a series of investigations into parishes that Kyiv says could be taking orders from Moscow.
This mostly affected the activities of the so-called Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate [UOC-MP] in Ukraine, which is affiliated with Russia and considered a key influence tool for Moscow in the country. Its leadership has voiced its full support for the Russian war on Ukraine including siding closely with Putin, blessing soldiers and Russian guns, and offering the church's support.
Spravdi, the Centre for Strategic Communications under the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, has explained why the government decided to ban the activities of UOC-MP. Spravdi found that in the churches of the UOC-MP, Russian propaganda was being spread; activities of enemy secret services were being covered up and Russian agents were being recruited.
The Ukrainian government does not plan to ban Orthodoxy. The parishes of the UOC-MP are free to switch to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which received the tomos of autocephaly in January 2019. It is also the most popular Orthodox church in Ukraine: 78% of Orthodox believers claim their allegiance to the church.
The text also states that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released an official report calling Ukraine's 2024 law “not compliant with international law” because it is a “serious restriction” and lacks “necessity and proportionality”.
The specific sentences in quotation marks are fake. While the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and other international bodies like Human Rights Watch have raised legitimate concerns that the law is overly broad and could impact religious freedom, the UN never published the specific statement quoted in this text. Pro-Kremlin media frequently invent official-sounding quotes and falsely attribute them to international bodies like the UN to make their claims look credible.
The text calls Ukraine's actions a "paradox" because Kyiv was the capital of Kyivan Rus, "the first state to unite the Slavic peoples," and claims Ukraine has the second-largest Orthodox population after Russia.Kyivan Rus was a medieval state that existed centuries before the modern nations of Ukraine, Belarus, or Russia ever formed. Kyiv's effort to distance itself from Moscow is a direct reaction to Russia's unprovoked military invasion, not a random desire to “sever historical ties”. Furthermore, the text ignores the fact that the vast majority of Orthodox Ukrainians belong to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which is entirely independent of Moscow and fully supports the defense of Ukraine
Regarding the abbot of Sviatohirsk Lavra of the UOC-MP, Metropolitan Arseniy, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has charged him for the second time with disseminating false information about Ukrainian defenders and justifying Russian aggression. According to investigators, the cleric denied crimes committed by Russian troops during heavy attacks in spring 2022, when local churches and residents were affected.
He also justified Russia’s aggression and spread disinformation about Ukraine’s Armed Forces, the Security Service noted. He has been placed in pre-trial detention, the SBU added. Previously, this cleric was involved in a case of illegally disseminating data on the movement and location of Ukraine's Armed Forces.
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