Russian propaganda spreads fake about Ukrainian priest refusing to mourn Ukrainian defenders baptized in Moscow-linked church

Russian media outlets and pro-war Telegram channels are sharing a video in which a cleric talks to a man in a camouflage T-shirt in a raised voice, while other people around him shout "Shame! Shame!" The propagandists write that this quarrel took place in Chernivtsi and allegedly started due to the fault of a priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine who allegedly refused to mourn the death of two Ukrainian soldiers because they were supposedly baptized in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

This is a fake. In fact, the exact opposite happened. The original video was shot on August 10, 2023, in the village of Irkliiv, Zolotonosha district, Cherkasy region.

The quarrel took place because of a priest of the Moscow-linked church who refused to mourn the death of two soldiers, because he did not want to conduct the service together with a chaplain of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

In this way, Russian propaganda passed off the inhumane actions of the priest of the Moscow Patriarchate church, which led to a scandal in the Cherkasy region's community, as an act allegedly committed by a representative of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

Ukrinform journalists have repeatedly refuted Russian fake narratives directed against the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Russian propaganda spread a fake about the Orthodox Church of Ukraine allegedly forcing people to repent for using the Russian language and about the alleged burning of an ancient temple in Ukraine that supposedly belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Such fakes are aimed at instilling distrust in the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, demonizing this denomination in the eyes of Ukrainians and the international community, and creating an artificial split in Ukrainian society on religious grounds.

Earlier, Russian propaganda spread a fake video about a negative attitude towards Ukrainian children in Polish schools.

Andriy Olenin