Ukraine’s security agencies have raided several Orthodox Church monasteries in operations “to counter subversive activities by the Russian special services”, as Kyiv urged some people in recently liberated Kherson to evacuate before a winter of power cuts.
The SBU security service said its officers entered the 1,000-year-old Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and three monasteries in the north-western Rivne region on Tuesday, prompting the Kremlin to claim that the Moscow-backed wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was being persecuted during a brutal all-out war between the Slavic neighbours.
“These measures take place jointly with the national police and the national guard, within the framework of the SBU’s systematic work to counter the subversive activities of the Russian special services in Ukraine,” the security agency said.
“In light of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, the risk of terrorist acts, sabotage and hostage-taking is growing, especially in places where citizens gather in large numbers,” the SBU added, noting the need to “check information that monastery premises are being used to hide sabotage and intelligence groups, foreign citizens and weapons.”
Many people in Ukraine are deeply suspicious of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that is loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, due to the latter’s close ties to the Kremlin and the support of its senior clerics for Russia’s invasion of its neighbour; an independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine was internationally recognised in 2019.
“The Ukrainian side has long been at war with the Russian Orthodox Church. I would say this can be seen as another link in the chain of hostilities against Russian Orthodoxy,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
“We pray very much for fellow believers in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. They are becoming victims of the impunity of some officials. We urge all caring people to try to do everything possible to stop the persecution. And to leave this ancient shrine as a place of prayer for peace,” said Vladimir Legoyda, a spokesperson for the Russian Orthodox Church.
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy met senior military and government officials to discuss provision of weapons and equipment to the army, the protection of energy facilities and how key infrastructure will function through the winter.
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, head of state power firm Ukrenergo, said Russian missile and drone strikes had inflicted “colossal” destruction on the national grid and there was now “practically not a single undamaged thermal or hydroelectric power station” in the country.
Ukrainian deputy premier Iryna Vereshchuk urged some people in the recently liberated southeastern city of Kherson – particularly the elderly, those with disabilities and mothers with young children – to move to safer parts of the country while infrastructure was being repaired and until Russian shelling subsided.
“The government offers free evacuation to Kryvyi Rih, Mykolaiv and Odesa, with possible further relocation to the Kirovohrad region, Khmelnytskyi region or to western regions of Ukraine. Free accommodation in shelters, humanitarian aid, food and medical support will be provided,” she said.
Ukraine’s energy crisis has been exacerbated by Russia’s seizure of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, Europe’s biggest such facility, where repeated shelling has raised fears of a potential radiation leak.
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency, who inspected the site after heavy shelling over the weekend, said that “key equipment remained intact and there were no immediate nuclear safety or security concerns”.
The agency added: “The status of the six reactor units is stable, and the integrity of the spent fuel, the fresh fuel and the low, medium and high-level radioactive waste in their respective storage facilities was confirmed.”
The agency is pushing for the creation of a “protection zone” around the plant, which Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of shelling.
