On the morning of 22 November 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine reported on Telegram that it was taking “counter-intelligence (security) measures on the territory of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv.” SBU conducts the operation jointly with the National Police and the National Guard “within the framework of the SBU’s systematic work to counter the subversive activities of the Russian special services in Ukraine.”
The Kyiv-based lavra is a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery complex currently controlled by the Moscow Patriarchate’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) which claimed to have cut all ties with the Russian church in May.
Half of Ukrainians want Moscow Patriarchate church banned in Ukraine, poll shows
According to SBU, “taking into account the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, the risk of committing terrorist acts, sabotage, and hostage-taking increases, especially in places with a large concentration of citizens.”
The agency says it’s raiding Lavra for:
- preventing the use of the Lavra as a center of the “Russki Mir” (Russian peace/world, – Ed);
- checking reports on the use of UOC premises for hiding sabotage and intelligence groups, foreign citizens, storing weapons, etc.
- securing the population against provocations and terrorist acts.
SBU raids Moscow Patriarchate-controlled Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery complex in Ukrainian capital
SBU says it's checking reports on the use of Moscow Patriarchate's church premises for hiding sabotage groups, foreign citizens, storing weapons.https://t.co/cp5ZC7UyFO pic.twitter.com/jy9e2osfcE
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) November 22, 2022
SBU says that with the direct participation of church representatives, law enforcement officers conducted “an inspection of the territory and premises of the Lavra to identify prohibited items” and carried out “checks on persons on the territory of the Lavra regarding their involvement in illegal activities to the detriment of the state sovereignty of Ukraine.”
The Security Service emphasized that all actions take place within the limits of current legislation and assured that it adheres to the principle of impartiality towards the activities of any religious denomination in Ukraine.
On November 14, the Security Service opened criminal proceedings regarding church singing that glorified Russia during a service in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
Update: not only Kyiv
According to the Rivne Oblast Directorate of SBU, the security agency has been conducting security measures on the territory of the Holy Trinity Monastery in Koretsk, the God’s Mother Volyn Icon convent in Sernyky, and the premises of the Sarny-Polissia Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).
The Rivne office of the SBU copied the entire motivational part of the original report on raiding the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra regarding the reasons for the searches, also saying that SBU, Police, and National Guard conduct this operation “within the framework of the SBU’s systematic work to counter the subversive activities of the Russian special services in Ukraine.”
Read also:
- Ukraine’s police investigate alleged “prayers” “for mother Russia” by a Moscow-led church in Kyiv
- Half of Ukrainians want Moscow Patriarchate church banned in Ukraine, poll shows
- Russian church owns property near Norway’s main naval base — Dagbladet
- “Moscow Patriarchate should be sanctioned for blessing the war”
- Only 4% of Ukrainians still identify as followers of Moscow Orthodox church – survey
- Getting killed in Ukraine washes away all sins, Russian patriarch tells invading army
- Moscow Patriarchate tells Russian troops: “Your task is to wipe the Ukrainian nation off the face of the earth”
- Kremlin employs Cossacks, Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine against Kyiv (2020)
- Forgotten history: What tour guides at Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra aren’t saying… (2018)
- How the Moscow Patriarchate is creating a separatist Lavra “republic” in Kyiv (2016)
- Moscow Patriarchate beefs up its staff for hybrid operations against Ukraine (2016)
