Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric in the media and social networks claim that Halloween was celebrated in the churches of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which the authors of such posts call “the holiday of evil spirits”. Like, proof of this is a video where one can see a church choir performing a song dedicated to this holiday. It was allegedly filmed in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Lutsk. However, this is a fake.

Analysts of the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that the video was not actually shot in Lutsk, but in the Church of the Holy Mother of God in Lviv on October 8, that is, before Halloween. Moreover, it is a temple of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, not the OCU. In addition, in the original video, the choir does not perform a song about the holiday, but the church song “How Beautiful is in Your Temple, Mother of God”, which has nothing to do with Halloween. The “celebration” of Halloween in Ukrainian churches is impossible, as the Orthodox Church of Ukraine publicly opposes this holiday, as explained on its official Facebook page.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists want to portray Ukrainians as schisms who destroy their faith for the sake of ideology. He said that even the churches in Ukraine were invaded by Western influences, which is why Russia introduced troops to protect “true values”.  Detector Media has repeatedly refuted messages and fakes related to the OCU.