"Purchased Tomos" and "corrupt SSU": russian propagandists invent new anti-Ukrainian fakes

The TV channel of the Ministry of Defense of the russian federation "Zvezda" showed propaganda films about the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), Vasyl Maliuk, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi. Oleksandr Petrovskyi, patron of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, also became the target of an information attack.

The Kremlin has launched a large-scale campaign to discredit key figures of the Ukrainian resistance, in particular, the heads of the SSU and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Former and current clerics of the so-called "Ukrainian Orthodox Church" of the Moscow Patriarchate are involved in the spread of fakes, Channel 24 reports, referring to the data of investigative journalists.

The mass media analyzed the recent propaganda films of "Zvezda" - the official TV channel of the Ministry of Defense of the russian federation - in which russians spread fakes about the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Maliuk, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi. In particular, propagandists accused the head of the SSU of "protecting" illegal amber mining, called him a "sadist" and "executioner." Oleksandr Petrovskyi, a businessman and philanthropist of the Dnipro Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, is also mentioned in the program. Propagandists invented a fake, allegedly that he paid USD 30 million for the Ukrainian church to receive the Tomos on autocephaly in January 2019. Ruslan Kalynchuk, a traitor to Ukraine and a former employee of the propaganda resources of the "Ukrainian Orthodox Church" of the Moscow Patriarchate, who fled to the russian federation last year and now openly supports the killing of Ukrainians, voiced this fiction on the air of a russian TV channel. The journalists found out that Oleksandr Petrovskyi really played a leading role in the process of the Ukrainian church obtaining autocephaly, but he did not bring suitcases of money to anyone.

"Petrovskyi financed the search for information in archives and libraries in order to justify Ukraine's right to the autocephaly of its church. He was one of the key figures and personalities in the fight for the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," said Andrii Kovaliov, a religious scholar and political scientist.

Investigators also visited the temple of Luke of Crimea in Kyiv, which is under the control of the Moscow Patriarchate. Until recently, the traitor Ruslan Kalynchuk served here, and even earlier another russian propagandist, Andrey Tkachov, was the abbot. In a conversation with the media, clerics and parishioners did not hide that they still have pro-russian views: they threatened that Ukrainians would soon have to "flee" from Kyiv. Experts interviewed by Channel 24 believe that one of the reasons for the information attacks of the occupiers against the SSU is the activity of the special service in countering the russian intelligence network "in cassocks".

"There are known situations when people were hiding in the Lavra, money, possibly weapons and explosives were kept. Because traditionally it was not possible to enter there, break in, conduct any searches. Based on this, the reduction of the presence of russian special services due to the capabilities of the UOC MP is very painful for them. This leads directly to a loss in the war. They are trying to preemptively ensure that this reduction does not happen," emphasized Dmytro Zolotukhin, an expert on information warfare, former deputy minister of information policy.

We will remind that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine received the Tomos on autocephaly from the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on January 6, 2019. The festive ceremony took place in the Church of St. George in Istanbul. Among its honored guests was the patron of the OCU (formerly the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate) Oleksandr Petrovskyi.

According to the sociological survey by "Info Sapiens", in January 2023, 69% of Ukrainians considered themselves Orthodox. 41% attributed themselves to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, 4% to the "UOC" of the Moscow Patriarchate.

On March 5 of this year, the Verkhovna Rada's Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy recommended the second reading of a bill banning the activities of religious organizations associated with the russian federation in Ukraine. On March 18, it became known that the MPs received a letter with threats from the American law firm, which is financed by the sponsor of the "UOC" MP, the sanctioned oligarch Vadim Novinsky. The committee turned to the Security Service of Ukraine.

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