The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War reported that certain hysteria was observed in the Russian media field due to the fact that soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attended the Orthodox Christmas service oin the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (led by OCU head Metropolitan Epifaniy) on January 7, calling it “open war” and “massacre” against the UOC MP.
This is stated in the ISW (Institute for the Study of War) report.
Several milbloggers referred to the footage as evidence that the Lavra has been “captured” by “heretics and schismatics.”
Thus, the rhetoric pursued by Russian propagandists and the UOC-MP is similar.
It is noted that in this way the terrorist state uses religion as a weapon and exploits it in its information operations to denigrate Ukraine.
“Russian milbloggers falsely presented the legal transfer of the Kyiv-Perchesk Lavra from the UOC MP, which the Ukrainian government maintains has explicit links to the Kremlin and has provided material and spiritual support to the Russian war in Ukraine, to the OCU as an attack on the ability of observers of Orthodox tradition to celebrate Christmas,” reads the ISW report.
Analysts emphasized that dictator Vladimir Putin actually confirmed, himself, that the Russian Orthodox Church, which governs the UOC MP, supports the Russian invasion, when in his Christmas speech he thanked the Russian Orthodox Church for its constant support for the Russian occupiers on the territory of Ukraine.
By the way, after the service in the Lavra on January 7, Metropolitan Epifaniy addressed the faithful, stressing that today Ukrainians are celebrating the second birth of the Lavra, because “the artificial spirit of the unholy teaching of the Russian world is leaving it.” He also appealed to the brothers of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery and called on the monks to free themselves from Moscow.
Memo: On January 7, Metropolitan Epifaniy of the OCU for the first time held a Christmas service in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. This event is seen as the restoration of historical justice.
