The SSU searched the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate in Sumy region

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) came to search the Sofroniyevo-Molchenskyi Monastery of the UOC MP. The SSU explained its actions as counterintelligence measures and countering the subversive activities of the Russian special services.

"Given the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, these measures are being carried out, in particular, to prevent the use of religious communities as a center of "Russian peace" and to protect the population from provocations and terrorist acts," the SSU noted.

Law enforcement officers inspect the territory, premises and check the servants for pro-Russian activities and connections with the occupiers.

• On December 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky informed that the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine instructed the government to submit to the Verkhovna Rada a draft law banning the activities of religious organizations affiliated with Russia in Ukraine.
• At the end of November, the SSU conducted a series of searches in churches, monasteries and laurels of the UOC MP, in particular in Kyiv-Pechersk. After the presidentʼs statement, law enforcement officers began actively conducting a series of searches across the country.
• On December 9, a committee of the Verkhovna Rada recommended the adoption of a draft law prohibiting the activity of religious organizations affiliated with Russia in Ukraine.
• On December 20, the UOC MP called on Zelensky to cancel sanctions against churchmen, and the "Kvartal 95" studio to apologize for anti-religious jokes.