they accuse him of sentencing an entire Ukrainian battalion

So it is not surprising that the Kremlin has used the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (OCU), dependent on Russia, like a tool of war. Although after the outbreak of the conflict the OCU tried to distance itself from the Russian church and its highest representative, Patriarch Kiril I -Putin’s ally and defender of the “special military operation”-, this church still generates mistrust in the country.

In fact, for the Ukrainian forces the institution represents a subversive threat. Not just because it can become a incubator of pro-Russian faithfulbut because it has already been used as a cover for infiltrated priests, monks and nuns who have collaborated with the enemy army.

Ukrainian intelligence services (SBU) have carried out numerous searches and raids on churches and monasteries across the country in recent months. In November, they entered the Monastery of the Caves in kyivone of the oldest and most iconic in the country, because they suspected that it was being used as a barracks for agents of the “Russian special services”, “refuge for a group of saboteurs” and “weapons warehouse”, according to the agency. Reuters.

In all, since February more than 30 clergymen have been arrested by Ukrainian forces and accused of collecting intelligence information and giving it to Russia. One of them is Andriy Pavlenkoan OCU abbot born in the city of Lisichansk, in the Lugansk region, who was convicted by the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office in December to 12 years in prison for spying.

[La Iglesia Ortodoxa Rusa Se Desangra por Ucrania: Todos contra el Patriarca de Moscú Fiel a Putin]

“He needs to be killed”

Pavlenko was on a spiritual mission in Severodonetsk, a town located on the banks of the river Sviersky Donets which became the last Lugansk stronghold to fall into Russian hands at the start of the war. Between bombardments, this religious continued to serve as a guide for the faithful and even visited a hospital for wounded soldiers.

However, according to court records accessed by the New York TimesPavlenko was working “actively” to kill Ukrainian soldiers and activists during the offensive that Russian troops carried out in May on the site.

“In the north, there are about 500 of themwith a mortar platoon, five armored personnel carriers and three tanks,” Pavlenko wrote to a Russian official in March, as the Russian army attacked the enclave, which would eventually be overrun by Kremlin troops. “The enemy used the information to establish the location and fire on the targets“, the Ukrainian authorities point out on Telegram.

But Pavlenko is not only blamed for having revealed data that would have ended with almost a whole battalion, since it is a military unit that goes from 500 to 1000 troops. He is also accused of targeting a priest from a rival Orthodox church in the city.

[Putin reduce a cenizas un monasterio del siglo XVII en Donetsk: así se venga de los ortodoxos ucranianos]

“He needs to be killed”he said, according to evidence presented at his trial before a Ukrainian court and collected by the New York Times. A piece of evidence that served the courts to confirm that he had sent lists of people to the Russian army to be executed once the city was occupied.

Despite the sentence that falls on Pavlenko, and the fact that he only spent eight months in prison, at the end of 2022 he was released during a prisoner exchange with Russia.

Other names are added to Pavlenko’s, such as Mykola Yevtushenko, OCU abbot who, at 75, is pending trial for collaborating with the Russians and instigating his parishioners to help Putin’s soldiers. Also, according to the portal Politicalis accused to identify citizens likely to resist the Russian occupation in Bucha, the city northeast of kyiv where one of the worst massacres of the war took place.