The Security Service of Ukraine checked the temples of the Moscow Patriarchate in Zakarpattia, Chernivtsi, Rivne, Volyn, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Lviv, Zhytomyr and Kherson regions.
The SBU reported this on December 14.
Thus, Russian passports, St. Georgeʼs ribbons, symbols of the banned OPZZh party and Cyrillic "methodology" for spreading propaganda through the faithful were found on the territory of the dioceses. They also found warehouses with pro-Kremlin literature, particularly the works of the ideologue of racism, Ivan Ilyin. In these publications, representatives of the Russian Federation deny the existence of the Ukrainian people, their language, and culture and also question Ukrainian statehood.
Forms of passes to the occupation authorities of the Russian Federation were found in the church premises in the village of Chornobayivka and in the Lviv region — photos of hidden Russian documents about interaction with the Russian commissariats. On the territory of churches in the Zakarpattia region, the flag of the Republic of Pidkarpatska Rus with the text of the hymn of the Pidkarpattia Rusyns was discovered.
- On December 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky said 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 SBU 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 searches throughout the country. Servants of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate are being checked for pro-Russian activities and connections with the occupiers.
- On December 2, the National Security and Defense Council introduced personal sanctions against ex-Deputy of Ukraine Vadym Novinsky, Vicar of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra of the UOC MP Petro Lebed and a number of other priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.