Ukraine’s SBU security service has exposed Vasyl Povorozniuk, the sanctioned Metropolitan of the Luhansk Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, as a collaborator, the agency’s press service reported on Telegram on Jan. 12.
According to the investigation, in September 2022 Povorozniuk visited the Kremlin, where he took part in the ceremony of the so-called “accession” of the temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine to Russia. He also supported Moscow’s war against Ukraine and the seizure of Ukrainian territory, including Luhansk Oblast.
In May 2022, Povorozniuk attended a meeting held in Luhansk under the leadership of the Russian-appointed puppet governor of “LPR,” Leonid Pasechnik.
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Along with an advisor to Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, Povorozniuk spoke to Russian TV channels in favor of adopting a so-called “resolution” that spread disinformation about Ukrainian soldiers and the situation at the front.
The SBU noted that, in many interviews with Kremlin propagandists, the Povorozniuk glorified the Russian military and called for the continuation of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Investigators indicted the Metropolitan in absentia for aiding the aggressor state, the punishment for which is imprisonment for a term of 10 to 12 years, among other things.
The Ukrainian parliament voted on Oct. 19 to ban the Moscow Patriarchate, and the SBU has conducted inspections of monasteries, churches, and other property of the Moscow Patriarchate throughout Ukraine since November 2022. During these operations, substantial quantities of pro-Russian literature was discovered, along with numerous Russian citizens with questionable documents.
On Jan. 19 2023 the Cabinet of Ministers submitted a bill to the Verkhovna Rada that banned the activities of religious organizations headquartered in the aggressor state.
The decision to ban the activities of churches belonging to the Moscow Patriarchate in several oblasts across Ukraine.
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