Ukraine will impose restrictions on the activities of Russian-linked devout organizations in the country, and security to open an investigation into a branch of the Orthodox Church linked to Moscow after a raid on a monastery last week.
“The National Security and Defense Council has told the government to propose to the (parliament) a bill banning the activities in Ukraine of organizations affiliated with centers of influence in Russia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday in his late-night video speech.
Zelenskyy said the investigation of security facilities would determine whether the Moscow branch of the church could function at one of Ukraine’s holiest sites: the Pechersk Lavra compound in Kyiv.
The Russian Orthodox Church has continuously spoken out in favor of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine for nine months. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, who heads the Russian Orthodox Church, described the war as a “metaphysical struggle” between Moscow and the West.
Part of the Ukrainian church broke with Moscow in 2019 over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and by separatists in the eastern Donbass region, after many years of non-secular leadership from Moscow.
While the Moscow-linked Church officially severed ties with the Russian Orthodox Church last May, many Ukrainians still distrust it and accuse it of covert cooperation with Russia.
“We will have to create the situations so that no actor dependent on the aggressor state (Russia) can manipulate the Ukrainians and weaken Ukraine from within,” Zelenskyy said.
The intelligence service, known as SBU by its initials in Ukrainian, last week raided 350 buildings belonging to the Russian-linked church and carried out checks on 850 people. He said he discovered “dubious” Russian citizens, giant sums of cash and pro- Russian literature a raid on the 1,000-year-old Pechersk Lavra.
Overlooking the right bank of the Dnieper, Pechersk Lavra is the seat of the wing of the Russian-backed Ukrainian Orthodox Church and falls under the Moscow Patriarchate.
The complex is a Ukrainian cultural treasure and its cathedral, churches and buildings are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Moscow and the Russian Orthodox Church condemned the attack.