THE Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has charged 14 senior figures in the Russian Orthodox Church with aiding the illegal transfer and seizure of churches in the temporarily occupied territories in southern and eastern Ukraine.

The charges related to the period between 2022 and 2024 when the Moscow Patriarchate moved to annex the eparchies of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the occupied territories and place them under the direct control of Patriarch Kirill. The UOC has been historically tied to Moscow, but managed from Kyiv with its own leadership.

The representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, who, at the time, were said to have been members of the “Kremlin-controlled Holy Synod” were charged in absentia for “complicity in committing international actions with the aim of changing the boundaries of the territory or state border of Ukraine”, the SBU said.

The charges specifically concern the Dzhankoy, Berdyansk, Rovenky, and Kherson dioceses in Ukraine, where Moscow-appointed clergy have been installed. This is the second instance of the SBU’s acting on a change of canonical subordination, after similar actions were taken by Ukraine in December, in which four other Russian hierarchs were also charged in absentia.

At the same time, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence has accused the Russian Orthodox Church of appointing new “curators” to advance the ideals of the “Russian World” foreign policy, believed to be “an instrument of Russia’s hybrid influence aimed at destabilising the situation in Ukraine”.

According to the Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate (GUR), the high-ranking bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, including Metropolitan Anthony (Volokolamsk), who leads the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, have been tasked with expanding hybrid operations in Ukraine.

In a post on Telegram, the Ministry of Defence said: “The so-called ‘church figures’ are to organise and coordinate contacts with religious organisations headquartered in Russia and other pro-Russian elements in Ukraine, pass on to them instructions from Russian special services, and control the implementation of provocations in the interests of the Kremlin.”

Last August, Ukraine adopted a law requiring the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to sever its ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, or be subject to a court order. The Church was allowed a nine-month transition period (until May 2025).

In a recent interview, the American commentator Ben Shapiro asked President Zelensky about an alleged crackdown on religious freedom and its effect on the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. President Zelensky strongly rebutted the allegations: “Nobody closed anything or anyone. But it can’t be the case that Russia’s KGB is in control of the church in Ukraine. Everyone is against these legal ties.”