Викриття On its own behalf, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine calls on to kill Russians, says a postcard distributed by the invaders
Such a “postcard” was distributed on social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. The “postcard” states that the so-called Department of cooperation with the Armed Forces and Law enforcement agencies of Ukraine under the Orthodox Church of Ukraine of the Kyiv Patriarchate calls on Ukrainian soldiers to kill Russians. Allegedly, the metropolitan himself signed the postcard, which means that the Ukrainian church calls for murders on its own behalf.
Analysts of the NotaYenota project took up this case and determined that the postcard was fake. Analysts analyzed this “postcard” and found a number of inaccuracies in it, in particular:
There has been no Kyiv Patriarchate in Ukraine since 2018;
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine does not have a “Department of cooperation with the Armed Forces and Law enforcement agencies of Ukraine”. Instead, there is such a department in the Russian Orthodox Church;
Varsonofii, whose name the “postcard” was signed with, is in fact the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Metropolitan Epiphanius, the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, emphasized that it is not a sin to wish death on the enemy and to kill the Russian occupiers. However, there were no calls to “kill on behalf of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine”.