Italian media: Ukrainian authorities persecute the country’s largest confession

Metropolitan Onuphry. Photo: UOC press service

The Italian outlet L’Identità has published a report on what it describes as the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), calling it the “canonical Orthodox Church, unquestionably the first by number of faithful,” which is “subjected to every kind of harassment.”

According to the publication, UOC churches are being seized by the state, priests are “arbitrarily arrested,” and the Church itself has been outlawed by a parliamentary decision. The authors note that the ban has drawn criticism even from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who in an official report described it as “inconsistent with international law,” since it “constitutes a serious restriction affecting people’s ability to practice their faith,” and that “Ukraine has not demonstrated the necessity and proportionality of this measure.”

A central focus of the article is the case of Metropolitan Arseniy, described by L’Identità as a “well-known and respected religious figure in eastern Ukraine.” The outlet writes that Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) arrested the hierarch over a sermon delivered in September 2023, in which he, as the article explains, “simply lamented military checkpoints in the Kramatorsk region that prevented numerous pilgrims from reaching the monastery.” For this, he faces up to eight years in prison.

Journalists report that the court has “systematically ignored all defense motions for alternative preventive measures,” despite the hierarch’s deteriorating health: he reportedly suffers from serious heart conditions and requires surgery. Nevertheless, the outlet notes that many representatives of Ukrainian society – politicians, public figures, and religious organizations – have spoken out in his defense, signing appeals demanding his release. Believers reportedly fill the courtroom at every hearing to support him.

The case of Arseniy, the authors stress, is far from isolated. Citing former SBU head Vasyl Maliuk, the publication states that between 2022 and 2024 the agency conducted more than 41,000 inspections of the UOC, searched over 350 church buildings, and opened 170 criminal cases against Orthodox clergy on charges including “treason,” “aiding the aggressor state,” and “inciting religious hatred.” Several convicted clergy, journalists note, were exchanged for prisoners of war and sent to Russia, while more than fifty clerics were stripped of Ukrainian citizenship. After the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was seized in March 2023, its abbot, Metropolitan Pavlo, appealed to President Zelensky to halt the eviction – and was subsequently placed under house arrest.

“With bitterness,” L’Identità concludes that “despite all this, almost no one in Italy or Europe speaks about it – likely because it does not fit the narrative of Ukraine as a bastion of democracy supported by most mainstream media.”

Among those who have raised the issue, the outlet names current U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, who, while still serving as a senator from Ohio in April 2024, delivered a speech in the Senate condemning what he called repression against Orthodox Christians. L’Identità quotes him as describing it as a “disgrace” not to use the billions of dollars sent to Ukraine as leverage to ensure religious freedom. Similar positions, the publication says, have been voiced by other figures associated with the Trump administration, including Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and journalist Tucker Carlson. Since 2023, the UOC’s interests in international forums have been represented by American attorney Robert Amsterdam.

In Italy, the issue has been promoted by the association “Vento dell’Est” (“Wind from the East”), which has organized several events, including a conference in Verona attended by regional councilor Stefano Valdegamberi and former MP Vito Comencini. The association has also sent a letter to Pope Leo XIV urging him to take a clear stance on the matter.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations have assured international audiences that there are no persecutions of the UOC.

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