Between January 20-22, 2024, social media users spreading pro-Russian rhetoric circulated the video along with the claim that it was filmed in a church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The authors of messages with it indicate that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which, according to them, was liberated from “pro-Russian exarchs”, has now been captured by the “Zelenskyi regime”, which holds musical performances instead of church services. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the MythDetector project drew attention to it. They found out that Information about the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is regularly disseminated with fabrications and manipulative descriptions and is directed against the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church. In fact, this video was not filmed in the church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), but in the Cathedral of the Resurrection in Ivano-Frankivsk, which belongs to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. It clearly reflects the arrangement of religious symbols, chandeliers and ceramic glass windows, thanks to which it was possible to determine the denomination of the temple.

The video was filmed on January 14 and depicts a performance by the orchestra of the Lviv Theological Seminary. According to information published on the official website of the Cathedral, members of the seminary orchestra came to it after the service and played various musical instruments for the clergy and guests of the church.

Propagandists spread such manipulations to reinforce their narrative that the autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church is “blasphemous” and “unreal”. They say that the Zelenskyi regime infringes on the rights of real believers, which means it is not a full-fledged European state.