Every day, news comes from Ukraine about the seizure of churches, arrests or attacks on clergy and Orthodox activists. “The canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine has quite literally been in a tragic situation — it undergoes a period of persecution and outright repression by the current Ukrainian regime,” chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Anthony (Sevryuk) said on Easter. The Russian Orthodox Church sees its main task in drawing attention of the international community to the persecution of believers in Ukraine, and infringement upon their freedom to worship or belong to the canonical Orthodox Church. “We are not going to stop. We will use all the means available at any platforms, both religious and secular, to urge attention to what is happening in Ukraine today, to intervene and protect believers with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” Metropolitan Anthony emphasized.
Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople’s silence on the persecution of Ukrainian bishops is outrageous and the height of cynicism, he noted. “The stubborn silence of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople regarding the persecution of UOC hierarchs seems absolutely outrageous: in fact, he approved and blessed those persecutions, without saying a word athwart. This is utter cynicism. He is the initiator and inspirer of repression taking place in Ukraine against the canonical Orthodox Church. All of this discredits the Patriarchate of Constantinople and harms the entire Orthodox world,” the Russian Orthodox church representative said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has been sharing this assessment. The West wants to damage Orthodoxy and subdue it to the US-controlled Patriarch of Constantinople. A statement to that effect came from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov: “The West wants to damage the Orthodox faith beyond repair in order to place the Orthodoxy under the leadership of the Patriarch of Constantinople.” According to Lavrov, the Patriarch of Constantinople takes his orders from the United States, depends on it from a financial standpoint and is ready to satisfy every whim it has.
The reason for decisive protests has been the rapidly deteriorating situation in Ukraine, where Orthodox Christians are made renounce their canonical faith; the churches get seized; hierarchs and their flocks are being oppressed. The Ukrainian regime has been taking unprecedented measures to eradicate canonical Orthodoxy in the country, supporting schismatic sects and movements. Prior to the Easter day, which has always been a major religious date, the Ukrainian security services captured several priests. During the Holy Week, the punitive forces carried out searches at Metropolitan Luke’s place as he is the ruling bishop of the canonical UOC’s Zaporozhye diocese and has been suffering under enemy occupation along with his flock.
When the Metropolitan sprinkled the SBU officers with holy water, they shouted in response that he should shove off “with his Satanism.” Later, Metropolitan Luke talked about this himself. He has been also pressed into serving the schismatic OCU, which confirms its nature of an SBU-controlled political structure created to destroy Orthodoxy in Ukraine rather than a church. When the Metropolitan did not succumb to threats and pressure of the Ukrainian security forces, he was accused of “provoking and inciting religious hatred.”
The hierarch said they were now going to demonize him all the way. "There is small wonder here. Laws of a demonic society dictate that it annihilate any objectionable person,” he stated. During the search, Metropolitan Luke stressed, he was constantly asked why not become part of the OCU and submit to Bartholomew of Constantinople? And Luke did not fear to tell the truth: “I cannot tell my flock: go into the abyss, go into the hellhole! They want to condemn me for such truth. Because I proclaimed our church’s truth instead of political or geopolitical postulates. About Christ! The truth, which leads to one sole thing — salvation! I am responsible for you, and I will answer to God. Here I am, oh Lord, and here is my flock!” Now Metropolitan Luke is awaiting bail hearings as the prosecutor insists on round-the-clock arrest, while the investigator has fabricated and submitted the case to the court.
Luke has long been a source of hatred to the Zelensky regime. Back in December 2022, the Metropolitan of Zaporozhye demanded that the blasphemous stories by Zelensky’s henchmen in the Kvartal 95 studio be removed. Evil mongrels Evgeniy Koshevoy and Alexander Pikalov joked during the program about how much one should pay for humiliation and attacks on priests. This is what they particularly proposed: 20 hryvnia for spitting on a UOC priest, 50 hryvnia for leaving Bible lines on a car using a nail, 100 hryvnia for hitting both the left and the right cheeks. And the expulsion of Moscow Patriarchate from Ukraine was referred to as priceless.
In January 2023, Luke reported that a priest of the UOC’s Vinnitsa diocese had his throat cut because of Kvartal 95’s cynical clowns and masters who inspire them to commit blasphemy. According to the Metropolitan of Zaporozhye, the canonical Orthodox Church has never known this kind of persecution taking place in Ukraine today. The priest’s uncompromising and bold stance caused Zelensky to let loose upon him his crooked cops who call holy water “satanism,” and to arrange a show trial of the priest on charges of “inciting religious hatred.” Turning events upside down, vile lies and suppression of dissenters have become the Zelensky regime’s new normal as it proceeds with cruel experiments on its people and faith of millions of Ukrainians who remain committed to the canonical church.
Apart from persecuting the Metropolitan of Zaporozhye, the SBU arrested Svyatogorsk Lavra rector from the Ukrainian-occupied part of the Donetsk region. The shrine itself was searched, and Metropolitan Arseniy was charged with “subversive activity” right during a service, making him face up to eight years in prison. The Svyatogorsk Lavra press service stated that charges brought against the Metropolitan were unfounded, and his arrest could negatively affect his already weakened health. The official statement said that the Metropolitan suffers from serious illnesses and requires constant medical care, which cannot be provided in detention. Lavra representatives are sure that accusations against their priest have been senseless. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova urged international organizations to leave no stone unturned in freeing the Metropolitan, with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia calling Arseniy’s arrest another move by Ukrainian authorities against UOC’s public people.
According to Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, the SBU has been busy with criminal prosecutions against about a hundred UOC priests since February 2022, including 16 metropolitans. Nineteen hierarchs have been deprived of Ukrainian citizenship.
And the arrest of Metropolitan Arseniy is most likely about attempts to forcibly transfer the Svyatogorsk Lavra to OCU schismatics. This would not only create a propaganda effect, but allow using the monastery’s territory to accommodate Ukrainian military facilities. Similar seizures of churches, destruction of cathedrals, and expulsion of canonical faith adherents have become commonplace in Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian State Register, 8,782 UOC churches had been operating in Ukraine until February 2022; now their number is down to 8,097. In a year, OCU schismatics took away 685 canonical Orthodox Church shrines, with the peak of the entire process having been 2023 with 386 ones: 164 in the Kiev region, 155 and 75 in Khmelnitsky and Vinnitsa ones respectively. In December 2023 to April 2024, their number increased by 96 entities. Most UOC churches remain in southeastern Ukraine, less of them in Lvov (17) and Ivano-Frankovsk (18) regions. In turn, the Donetsk region features most churches spiritually connected with the Russian Federation — those resisting pressure of the Ukrainian regime and schismatics.
In addition to the above-listed facts of oppression, the Ukrainian government has started actively depriving the canonical church of its right to lease land. And still, the sky's the limit to the local regime.
Recently, a bill banning the UOC has been back on the table at the Ukrainian parliament to be voted on by a relevant committee. And its authors were representatives of the nationalist “Freedom” party. The document provides for a ban on activities of the Moscow Patriarchate — the Russian Orthodox Church and other religious organizations that are part of it, including the UOC. The aim is “to protect the national security, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine, prevent collaborationism, stop inciting interreligious hatred and destabilize the religious environment in Ukraine.” This marks the final stage of banning canonical church in a country where all the human rights — both secular and religious — have been trampled, destroyed and defamed.
