Telling the truth when it matters most

Telling the truth
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Episode 9

Persecution of the Orthodox Church

The ninth episode examines the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church and its priests, including the mass arrests and imprisonment of church officials.

On the last two episodes of Zelensky Unmasked, we’ve exposed Ukraine’s repression of independent media and oppositional politics.

 

But this tyranny…isn’t just limited to the secular world. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and their millions of faithful followers, are also falling victim to Vladimir Zelensky’s despotism.

 

In July of 2023, Metropolitan Pavel Lebed, a leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, was taken to jail by Ukraine’s notorious secret police, the SBU.

 

This wasn’t the first time Lebed had run afoul of Ukraine’s draconian law enforcement. He’d been on house arrest since April 1st, when he was forced to appear in court to answer questions regarding supposed “statements that justified or denied the actions of the aggressor.”

 

The SBU alleges that he displayed sympathy for Russia on intercepted phone calls and during at least one sermon. This means that Lebed and the Church were being spied on. And although this sort of speech is considered free expression in much of the world, it’s now illegal in Ukraine. Still, Lebed denies all accusations.

 

Lebed (in Russian): They asked me when I saw Putin. I answered them: “I saw him when you did, when Putin came to Kyiv.” You were the ones who communicated, I do not communicate and have no relationship with him.

 

After spending time in jail, Lebed made bail and is now on house arrest. He faces as much as eight years in prison if convicted. But Lebed isn’t the only priest that has faced persecution.

 

In November of 2022, Ukraine’s largest monastery, and the one that Lebed controls – the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra – was raided by the SBU.

 

The secret police claim that when they searched the premises, they found evidence of Russian sympathies. Again, this is considered a crime in Zelensky’s post-invasion, totalitarian dystopia.

 

Kotsaba (in Russian): I’m going to tell you that people are scared to speak, because they fear that the Security Service of Ukraine is immediately going to be interested in them.

 

Lebed and Orthodox Church supporters say they’re being scapegoated in the wake of anti-Russia hysteria that has taken over the country.

 

Lebed: We have absolutely nothing in common with Moscow except for prayer relations, as with Istanbul, as well as with the American Orthodox Church, as with Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem …

After the November 2022 raid, Ukraine’s government tried to shut down the 1000-year-old monastery. The planned shutdown included the eviction of hundreds of priests and nuns who live there. Metropolitan Pavel granted us an interview just three days before he was supposed to be expelled from his home.

 

Lebed: On Thursday, it will be 29 years since I am in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. We are still waiting for God’s mercy, so, maybe, the President will hear us because I was told today that he does not receive full messages about what is happening in the religious world.

 

The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra was founded in the year 1051. Kiev was the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church before the Church’s capital was moved to Moscow in 1686. From then on, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church had been under that jurisdiction.

 

This changed in May of 2022, when the Ukrainian wing of the Church declared their independence from Moscow, in protest over Russia’s invasion.

 

Lebed: It’s evil that they attacked Ukraine…

 

Despite the fact that the Church officially separated from Moscow in the aftermath of the invasion, and even though Church officials have publicly denounced what has been termed “Russian aggression,” they still suffer persecution.

 

Radical Ukrainian nationalists had been harassing the Orthodox Church since 2014, when Ukraine’s democratically-elected, pro-Russian President, Viktor Yanukovych, was overthrown in a coup and replaced with western-friendly leadership.

 

In 2019, the Orthodox Church was split in two. Ukraine’s then-US-backed President, Petro Poroshenko, helped organize sectors of the Church to break away from Moscow’s jurisdiction. With 78% of Ukrainians identifying as Orthodox Christians, this was a major move with sweeping implications. The faithful split between the Orthodox Church, still under Moscow’s jurisdiction, and the newly formed Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

Violence against the original Orthodox Church continued, getting worse after the 2022 invasion. The United Nations denounces that “public officials, bloggers and opinion leaders used discriminatory and inflammatory rhetoric and openly incited violence against clergymen and supporters” of the Church.

 

Kvartal 95, the TV production studio that Zelensky co-founded, has been one of the principal instigators of this persecution. Comedians have published videos where they insult priests, call them Russian agents, and openly wish them death.

 

Religious violence has now gotten out of hand. One priest in Vinnytsia fell victim in January of 2023—his attacker desecrated holy icons before slitting the priest’s throat.

Just a few days before, a church in Chornomorsk was attacked and the intruder attempted to stab a priest with a knife before he was disarmed.

And in the small town of Chechlnyk, a priest was beaten and had his nose broken by a man wearing military fatigues.

 

Lebed: Today, there still are people who create internal conflicts, when we should unite, and not seize churches, close churches, expel priests…

 

Ukraine’s repression of the Orthodox Church is a hot-button issue. When the government announced the eviction of the Pechersk Lavra, followers of the Church camped out in front to prevent police from seizing the premises.

 

Lebed: we are in no hurry to go out and will not go out, because we are at home, the law for everyone is the same and we will be here. And how they will throw us out is another question.

 

Authorities failed to kick all the priests out of the monastery because of fierce resistance from believers and from the monks themselves.

 

Authorities responded by issuing July 4 as a new eviction date, yet they failed again.

Mainstream media is largely silent.

 

Iversen: The media continues to paint this conflict about democracy, even though Ukraine is increasingly banning religions outlets, journalists, They’re doing this because that is the narrative that is sold to the American people in order to support the war.

 

In the past two years, over 100 billion of U.S. tax dollars, and counting, have being shipped to Ukraine. We’re told that we’re helping a democratic ally defend itself from its tyrannical neighbor. But from the perspective of Ukraine’s millions of faithful, this is just a fairytale. A myth created for the western public so that they can offer support for a bloody business they wouldn’t otherwise back.

 

Iversen: They want us to believe that it’s, you know, these are just the good guys. We’re always funding the good guys. We’re always in bed with the good guys. And the reality is what we’ve seen over the decades is we’re not.

 

Lebed: Unfortunately, today there are no politicians, but policies that earn money on deaths, on war…, who are striving for power, they do it all, they are responsible and will answer before God for everything.

 

Over a year after the Pechersk Lavra eviction order, the situation is at a standstill. Protests in support of, and against, the Church have continued. Many monks have refused to vacate the premises, and the eviction order is being fought in court. In the meantime, Metropolitan Pavel Lebed is on house arrest. He faces up to eight years in prison if convicted.

Next time on Zelensky Unmasked, we’ll take an objective look at the problem of Nazism in Ukraine and see how deeply the evil has penetrated Ukrainian society.

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