Ukraine’s National Security Council has imposed sanctions against at least ten members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate after holding a meeting on the activities of religious organizations, while searches continue in dioceses across the country.
Among those sanctioned are Pavlo Lebed, governor of the Kiev Caves Monastery, declared a world heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and also former deputy of the Ukrainian Parliament, Vadim Novinski, UNIAN news agency reported.
The National Security Council had urged the government to submit a bill to ban the activities of religious organizations with alleged Russian ties. Thus, the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, has signed a decree to validate this decision.
Thus, the Ukrainian government has two months to submit the initiative to the Parliament with sufficient «legal grounds» under international law, as reported by the Ukrinform news agency.
In parallel, searches in the Orthodox Church continued on Friday in Yitomir, Rivne and Transcarpathia regions. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) assured that these measures were carried out to «protect the population from provocations and terrorist acts».
According to the SBU on its Telegram profile, among the objects found were «prayer texts» of Patriarch Kirill, the highest representative of the Orthodox Church in Russia, as well as cash, Nazi symbols or propaganda leaflets calling to join the Russian Army.
Likewise, Ukrainian Intelligence has reported that the metropolitan archbishop of the Kirovohrad diocese is suspected of organizing «subversive activities against Ukraine». «The bishop was part of Kirill’s inner circle, with whom he coordinated the spread of pro-Kremlin views in the region,» it has said.
Last November 25 also saw searches of several monasteries in different cities, including Kiev. The SBU reported that, after inspecting the buildings, they found religious manuals from Moscow, documents in Russian and «pro-Kremlin» literature.
Ukraine, which has been carrying out searches in religious organizations for several weeks, assures that all these measures are being carried out to ensure national security and because the Orthodox Church spreads Russian propaganda and promotes recruitment, among other «subversive» actions.
