Employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) conducted a search on the territory of seven churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP).
This is stated on the page of the SBU administration in Khmelnytskyi region.
The Security Forces checked the premises:
- Diocesan Administration of the Shepetivka Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the St. Michael Cathedral (Shepetivka town);
- Nativity of the Mother of God Menʼs Monastery (Horodysche village, Shepetivka district);
- Womenʼs Monastery of St. Righteous Anna (Slavuta town);
- Church of the Holy Nativity of the Virgin Mary Parish (Slavuta town);
- Church of the Holy Martyrs Faith, Hope, Love and Sophia (Shepetivka town);
- Cathedral of the Icon of the Mother of God "Neopalyma Kupyna" (Netishyn town);
- Holy Resurrection Church (Vinkivtsi village).
Safety work is carried out in order to:
- prevent the use of cathedrals as centers of "Russian peace";
- check data on the use of UOC premises for hiding citizens of the Russian Federation, storing prohibited items, etc.;
- to protect the population from provocations and terrorist acts.
- 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.
- 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 27, the Constitutional Court recognized as constitutional the law of the Verkhovna Rada, which obliges to rename the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. It should change its name and indicate that its center is located in Moscow.