Russian media and pro-Russian telegrams are spreading videos of church fires. Allegedly, a fire occurred in the Holy Ascension church in the village of Ovadne, Volodymyr district, Volyn region. They say that the church was set on fire, because in Ukraine there is a “struggle against Orthodoxy”, and the priest “refused to leave the Moscow Patriarchate”. It is not true.

Information about the fire was denied by both rescuers and local authorities. The fire was not registered in the regional department of the State emergency service. According to the head of the Ovadne community, Serhii Panasevych, the video does not show their church.

Fact-checkers of the “Brekhunets” (Lier) project found out that this is a video of a fire in the church of St. Theodosius of Chernihiv in the village of Novooleksandrivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which occurred on January 19, 2021.

Russian propaganda systematically spreads messages about “harassment” and “discrimination” against the Moscow Patriarchate Church in Ukraine. Previously, reports of an attack on a priest in a temple were used to nourish this message. They also wrote that the transfer of churches from the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is “a struggle for influence on the minds of people”; allegedly Ukraine is “destroying” the greatest religious denomination; and that allegedly Ukraine needs to be “desatanized” and “deshaitanized”.