The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) conducted so-called counterintelligence activities on the territory of the Chernivtsi-Bukovina Diocese of the UOC. This was reported on November 25 in the Telegram channel of the special service.

As a result of investigative actions, law enforcement officers found documents confirming the presence of Russian citizenship in the leadership of diocesan structures.

Also, as reported in the SBU, correspondence of the heads of the diocese with their Moscow curators was found, in which they receive «manuals» regarding the «peculiarities» of holding church liturgies after the start of the special operation.

Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, according to the intelligence service, set the task of the diocese to misinform the population about the socio-political situation in Ukraine and the situation in the combat zone.

This week, the SBU, the National Police and the National Guard conducted searches on the territories of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in Kiev, the Koretsky Holy Trinity Monastery and the premises of the Sarno-Polesie diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the Rivne region.

During the searches, «pro-Russian literature» was found. In addition, SBU officers interrogated more than 50 people, including using a polygraph.

The head of the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and the Media, Vladimir Legoyda, called the SBU searches in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra an act of intimidation of believers.

In turn, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, proposed to conduct searches in the bunker of the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky.

The press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov called these searches another link in the chain of Kiev’s military actions against Russian Orthodoxy.