The Russian special services and the “DNR” officials they control are organizing church marches in Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Mykolayiv for Sunday, the day that the unification council of Ukrainian Orthodox Church will take place in an effort to disrupt it, Viktor Kononenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU, says.
According to the SBU official, the Russian security services held a meeting in Donetsk on December 6 to plan this and possibly other measures to distract attention from and spark protests against the church meeting.
Kononenko said that he was speaking about only part of the information that the SBU has obtained, an indication that Moscow may be planning other kinds of provocations as well. He urged Ukrainian organizations not to organize marches on the same day and called on Ukrainians to be vigilant against falling for these Russian actions.
Unfortunately, no one can exclude the possibility that Moscow may launch more serious military actions this weekend with the same purpose. One indicator of this danger is that the Russian media have stepped up their suggestions that Ukraine is planning an attack on Russian positions.
All too often, the most reliable early warning indicator of what Russia intends consists of its accusations that others are going to do what in fact Moscow plans to do itself.
Further Reading:
- For Putin, Ukrainian autocephaly is as bad for Russia as USSR’s disintegration and something he won’t tolerate, Illarionov says
- Moscow Patriarchate’s Church in Ukraine will survive autocephaly, but as marginal force, Yurash says
- Moscow laying groundwork for alternative patriarchate in Muslim Türkiye
- Putin’s ‘Russian world’ rapidly contracting in Ukraine and elsewhere, Sokolov says
- More fallout from Ukrainian autocephaly: Russians learn Moscow Orthodox hierarchs were KGB officers
- Constantinople: Moscow could be stripped of autocephaly, while Belarus could gain it
- Ukrainian mufti puts a Russian one in his place over Orthodox autocephaly
- Tomos ante portas: a short guide to Ukrainian church independence
- Constantinople decision on Ukrainian Church truly has global consequences
- The next domino – Belarusian Orthodox hope for autocephaly
- Moscow having failed to block Ukrainian autocephaly now attempting to exploit it
- Constantinople could grant autocephaly to Belarusian Orthodox Church next, Gorbik says
- Constantinople moves to grant autocephaly to Ukrainian Church, outraging Moscow
- Three signs Moscow Patriarch Kirill knows he’s lost on Ukrainian autocephaly
- Ecumenical Patriarch to grant Ukrainian Orthodox autocephaly, Greek Church source says
- Waiting for Constantinople’s historical decision on Church autocephaly in Ukraine
- Implicitly conceding Ukrainian autocephaly, Moscow makes plans to split Orthodoxy and dominate one part of it, analysts say
