The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported on Dec. 1 that it had found Russian propaganda and xenophobic literature while conducting searches at a Moscow Patriarchate monastery in Mukachevo, Zakarpattia Oblast.
The agency said it had found books of xenophobic content and brochures where Ukraine's right to independence is denied, while stating that Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus "cannot be divided."
On Nov. 30, the SBU said it was searching the monastery to counter the possible "subversive activities of the Russian special services in Ukraine."
The officers interrogated over 20 of the monastery workers, including with the use of a polygraph, according to the SBU.
In the past week, the SBU raided at least three other premises of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, finding Russian passports of the church's leaders and documents with pro-Russian ideological messages.
Despite the UOC-MP's official statement declaring "independence" from the Russian Orthodox Church in May and "condemning the war," the church's agenda remains intertwined with its Moscow overlords, and they officially remain subordinated to the Russian church in the hierarchy of the Orthodox world.
Patriarch Kirill, the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, has been vocal in his support for Russia's war against Ukraine. During a sermon in September, he said that sacrificing life in the war against Ukraine ‘washes away sins.’
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