The Peacemaker Center organization has published both text and audio of an intercepted call between a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine (which refers to itself as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church) from Kamyanske (formerly Dniprodzerzhynsk), which should be of interest to the Security Service of Ukraine. In the call, the ROCinU priest, Yevhen Maksymenko, refers to the Ukrainian nationhood as “heresy” and speaks against the Ecumenical Patriarch and the OCU, lobbying the interests of the “Russian world” and Ukraine’s unity with Russia.
In the call, the priest says he sent his Russian handler, Kirill Frolov, for a review and evaluation his propaganda-ridden publications, revealing the current theses of Russian propaganda, exposing the targeted efforts of Russian special services against the visit of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to Ukraine. There are also misinformation topics of the alleged “oppression at the ROCinU,” as well as the efforts toward purposeful discrediting the pro-Ukrainian OCU, a bit of Viktor Medvedchuk and the FSB, the Peacemaker reports.
During the call, ROCinU priest Yevhen Maksymenko discusses with Kirill Frolov a report the cleric drafted for his handler, in which he informs Patriarch Kirill on measures taken to compromise the visit of the Ecumenical Patriarch to Ukraine with the participation of Maksymenko and a team of Russian assets.
Maksymenko exposes the facts of interaction with the priest of the ROCinU, Nikolai Balashov (Deputy Head of the External Church Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate) and the specially created NGO “Myriany” (Laymen) and its head Vasily Makarovsky (who are also handled through Russia’s agents of influence) and other pro-Russian agents.
From the call it became known that for faithful service in Russia’s interests, the ROCinU minister is asking for a promotion to the level of archimandrite, and later – to a bishop, so that at the next synod in Moscow Maksymenko acted as a bishop. Kirill Frolov, in turn, notes that he is lobbying for these issues.
The Russian handler is heard designating the main function of Maksymenko, who considers Ukraine to be “Little Russia” and promotes the Kremlin’s narratives to the general public under the cover of a church position: “Ukrainian nationhood as such is a heresy and your task is to open people’s eyes to this.” The priest of the ROCinU replies: “Ukrainianhood is definitely a heresy and I must continue to say so.”
Amid the obscene language, apparently inherent in the priest, Maksymenko also criticizes the Ukrainian state-building process and shares Frolov’s position that “independence is evil and all about Satanism.” This, in turn, can be interpreted as an attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty.
It is generally clear from the intercept that the information campaign and the setup of mass rallies against the visit of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to Ukraine is part of a well-plotted set of measures by Russian special services targeting Ukraine, while the ROCinU is one of the main mechanisms for its implementation through such sort of “monks.”
The Peacemaker stressed that “monks who harbor the idea of unity with Russia” and spread “Russian World” theses the historical state of Rus that they believe must be revived based on “Orthodoxy” are people who hate Ukraine, its statehood, and the Ukrainian nationhood in general. ”
“Under the guise of religious activity, they seize the Ukrainian citizens’ minds after they no longer need to be captured or physically liquidated – they have already become zombie slaves upon whom the relevant ideas, defined patterns of behavior, and stereotypes have been instilled. Such religious figures are hostile spies and agents of influence, and the believers who follow them are captives – moreover, in their own territory. So, the SBU guys, let’s work to neutralize this infection within a legal plane or any other, if needed,” the Peacemaker concluded.
