Advertising
Supported by
Security said they searched for spies and weapons at the Cave Monastery in Kiev. Dozens of priests have been arrested since the start of the war for helping Russia.
Send a story to any friend.
As a subscriber, you have 10 gift pieces to offer per month. Everyone can read what you share.
By Marc Santora and Ivan Nechepurenko
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian security raided one of the holiest sites for Orthodox Christians on Tuesday, saying they were searching a 1,000-year-old monastery in central Kyiv for Russian saboteurs among clerics and weapons amid relics, even as pilgrims prayed in caves below.
The hunt for Russian spies in the vast Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, or Cave Monastery, is a brilliant demonstration of the intensity of distrust in Ukraine toward a branch of the Eastern Orthodox Church that, until this year, followed leaders to Moscow and suspected through many Ukrainians of being a Kremlin-aligned fifth column. Millions of Ukrainians belong to some other independent branch of Moscow.
As of last month, officials said, 33 had been arrested for aiding Russia since its invasion in February, most of them tasked with gathering intelligence and passing it on to Moscow’s forces.
It was unclear whether any arrests had been made or illegal activities exposed on Tuesday, but security warned that churches were the best hiding place for those seeking to tear Ukraine apart from within.
The Kremlin condemned the raid, calling it evidence that Kyiv is “at war with the Russian Orthodox Church. “Vladimir Legoyda, spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, called the move “an act of intimidation” against the only remaining establishment “where other people in Russia and Ukraine sincerely pray for peace. “
The attack came as the Russian military shelled towns and villages in southern and eastern Ukraine with heavy artillery fire, while trying to regroup after recent losses of territory and troops. over the winter, they seem to have opted for a strategy to make Ukraine uninhabitable for those who have not yet fled the country.
Ukrainian officials said another 8 people were killed in Tuesday’s attacks. In the city of Orikhiv, a shell hit a first-aid station at a school on Tuesday, killing a social worker and wounding two women, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region said. People queued at the aid station had left spaces between them as a protective measure, preventing a higher number of casualties, Gov. Oleksandr Starukh said in a message on the social messaging app Telegram.
Also on Tuesday, officials from Crimea, the peninsula illegally annexed through Russia in 2014, said Ukraine had introduced a drone strike on the port of Sevastopol, home to Moscow’s Black Sea fleet, but it was unclear whether any serious damage had occurred. It carried out several attacks on the front lines in Crimea, a vital arena and source domain for Russian army operations in the south.
Ukraine also aims to retake Kinburn Spit, a strategically important peninsula at the mouth of the Dnipro River where it meets the Black Sea. Control of the peninsula allows Russia to allocate its force deeper into the Black Sea, guarding routes to ports and its forces in Crimea. If Ukraine were to take Kinburn, it would place Russia’s main lines of origin north of Crimea within the diversity of Ukrainian weapons systems.
At the Cave Monastery, infantrymen armed with rifles searched the construction complex on Tuesday and questioned priests. In the candlelit underground labyrinth, visitors embraced sacred relics and prayed among the mummified and centuries-old remains of venerated monks, kept in display cases. Visitors were looking to comment on the plot that unfolds above.
Ukraine’s Security Service, known as SBU, said in a statement that it was investigating allegations that church property was being used “to hide sabotage and intelligence groups, foreign nationals, weapons storage. “The agents also attacked the Monastery of the Holy Trinity of Koretsky and the Sarny. – Eparchy of Polissia in the Rivne region of western Ukraine. The government has not announced any arrests or other effects of the operation.
The Cave Monastery, cradle of Orthodoxy for Russians and Ukrainians, is caught up in an unfolding standoff inside the church.
In Orthodox Christianity, national churches enjoy a high degree of autonomy, the Patriarch of Istanbul, whom the church still calls Constantinople, is considered first among equals. But the Moscow Patriarchate has presented itself as the true seat of Orthodoxy, pointing out that Turkish Muslims have ruled Istanbul since 1453.
In Ukraine, where most people identify as Orthodox Christians, for centuries the church is not autonomous and operates under Moscow’s leadership. But the Ukrainian Church has been announcing itself since the country’s independence in 1991, a process accelerated by conflicts between the two nations and through the close alliance between Patriarch Kirill I, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
In 2019, the Patriarchate of Constantinople identified an autonomous Ukrainian church in Moscow, a move that angered Russian and political leaders and sparked a schism in Ukraine. While many local churches joined the new, independent ecclesiastical branch, others remained within the one that still reported to Moscow – and still controlled the Monastery of the Caves.
Kirill is a prominent supporter of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, presenting it as a just defense of Russian nationalism and a crusade opposed to the propagation of liberal ideologies. and Paintings for Peace.
After Russia introduced its war against the concept that Ukrainian identity, language, and nationality are myths, many other churches switched their allegiance from the Moscow Patriarchate to the Kiev Patriarchate. Then, in May, the Ukrainian branch that had remained unwavering with Moscow officially broke with the Russian Orthodox Church, noting that its leaders disagreed with Patriarch Kirill over the war. But many of its clerics remain sympathetic to the Kremlin.
Dmytro Horevoi, an academic and director of the Kyiv Center for Religious Security, recently wrote in an online magazine about the plight of many priests who must remain neutral.
“There aren’t many open agents among them,” he wrote. Priests that “no matter your nationality, the important thing is to be in God and be humble,” he added.
“In the ordinary world, surely there is nothing wrong with this,” he wrote. “But when it comes to a war for national identity, for symbols and ancient heritage, those who undermine national identity become complicit in crime. “
Father Hieromonk Ioan, a member of the Kyiv monastery, said the clergy were not unwavering with Moscow but did not fear close ancient ties with Russia. “We have secure relations with Russia and it’s painful for us what’s happening now. “He said in an outdoor interview of the monastery after the raid.
The raid came days after a priest, Mykhailo Omelyan, posted a video he said was taken by a graduate student showing others in a monastery chapel cheering for Russia. I heard a song done in the video.
The Ukrainian government said it would open an investigation into its authenticity.
“Those who, under the situations of a large-scale war unleashed through Russia against Ukraine, are waiting for the ‘awakening of Mother Russia’ will have to perceive that this harms the security and interests of Ukraine and our citizens,” Vasyl said. Malyuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine. ” And we will not tolerate such protests. “
On Tuesday, according to the service, agents searched the monastery’s premises, scattered along the Dnipro River in central Kyiv, which were used to house saboteurs or buy weapons.
Father Hieromonk Ioan said the clergy there only sought to pray in peace. “The maximum thing is that the war is over, we pray for that,” he said. “So that the guilty may be punished and we may live in peace. And they are not afraid of tomorrow. “
Marc Santora reported from Kyiv and Ivan Nechepurenko from Tbilisi, Georgia. Neil MacFarquhar, Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Carly Olson contributed to the report.
Advertising