SW News: President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has announced that Orthodox parishes and religious establishments maintaining ties with Russia would come under the scanner. This came after the government said on Friday that it has banned religious outfits that are “affiliated with centers of influence” in Russia. It also announced that it would scrutinize ties between Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox churches.
Zelensky’s move is seen by experts as a move to prevent Russia from weakening his nation from within. A sizable chunk of believers in the war-ravaged nation is Orthodox Christians. The National Security and Defense Council appealed to the government to draft the law to bring Russian-leaning faith communities under the radar.
The council is made up of high-level security, military and political top brass. They gave orders for probes into the so-called “subversive activities of Russian Special Services in the religious environment of Ukraine”. They also sought sanctions on senior Orthodox clerics who are still loyal to Moscow.
Reuters reported that at least five parishes belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that was loyal to Moscow until May were raided. A notice has been served to a pro-Russia Orthodox diocese for reportedly organizing a campaign that supports Moscow.
President Zelensky said on TV “We have to create conditions where no actors dependent on the aggressor state will have an opportunity to manipulate Ukrainians and weaken Ukraine from within.”
For many years, Orthodox believers in Ukraine were under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. But, after the conflict in Crimea, a good number of Orthodox churches in Ukraine expressed the desire to be independent. Five years after the war, Patriarch Bartholomew, the first among equals among Patriarchs in the Orthodox Communion, declared that Ukrainian Orthodox could be independent of the Moscow Patriarchate much to the chagrin of Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church.
As a result of the Patriarch’s decision, there was a split in the Orthodox community in Ukraine and one chunk of believers and prelates professed loyalty to Moscow while the others came to be known as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. A good number of churches in the eastern part of the nation continued to be subservient to Moscow.
However, things changed in May when the Orthodox Church which professed loyalty to the Moscow Patriarchate announced that it was snapping ties. This was in protest against the open support of the Russian Orthodox Church for the Moscow-led invasion of the country.