⚡️ Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s comment on the seizure of the St Michael’s Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Cherkassy, Ukraine

💬 Today, Ukrainian neo-Nazis committed yet another criminal act against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), this time, it was a hostile takeover of the St Michael’s Cathedral in Cherkassy, the largest UOC church in that country.

The attackers opened fire on peaceful parishioners, including women, children, and the elderly. They used pepper spray and drove worshippers out, interrupting the service. As a result of these criminal actions, Metropolitan Theodosy of Cherkassy and Kanev was injured and hospitalised.

Against this backdrop, Mayor of Cherkassy Anatoly Bondarenko cynically referred to the incident as a “voluntary transfer” of the St Michael community into the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU).

It appears that this barbaric action was committed to enforce the law "On Amending Certain Laws of Ukraine Governing the Activities of Religious Organisations in Ukraine", which took effect on September 23 and has created legal mechanisms for banning the UOC.

The Kiev regime is doing everything possible to outlaw and liquidate the canonical church, while the Western backers of President Zelensky continue to encourage the deepening of the religious split in Ukraine.

Relevant human rights institutions and mechanisms, such as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, and Personal Representatives of OSCE Chairman-in-Office on Tolerance and Non-discrimination, including against Christians, remain criminally silent.

Such pandering to the crimes of Kiev’s neo-Nazis, who are seizing Orthodox churches, persecuting believers, and even resorting to physical violence against clergy, is seen by the Zelensky regime as encouragement of its barbaric actions.

☝️ Once again, we strongly call on relevant international human rights organizations to focus on their primary duties.

In turn, the Russian side continues to gather evidence of the Kiev regime's outrageous crimes, including against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

These findings are detailed in the reports posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website, “Illegal Actions by the Kiev Regime Targeting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), its Clergy and Parishioners” (July 2023) and the most recent report, “Regarding the Situation with the Glorification of Nazism and the Spread of Neo-Nazism and Other Practices That Contribute to Fuelling Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance” (September 11) with an entire section dedicated to the Kiev regime’s persecution of the UOC. I encourage you to review them.

❗️We are convinced that Zelensky will not succeed in destroying canonical Orthodoxy practiced by the majority of the people in that country. We strongly call on the international community to condemn the sacrilegious war waged by the Kiev regime against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.