Putin's regime uses religion as a weapon to strengthen anti-Ukrainian propaganda and discredit our state.

This is stated in the report of experts of the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

It is noted that the so-called "military bloggers" reacted to the footage released on January 7, where Ukrainian defenders in uniform attend the Orthodox Christmas service of the OCU in the Kyiv Percheska Lavra, and called it a "massacre" and "open war" of the UOC MP.

Propagandists claimed that the Lavra was allegedly "captured by heretics and schismatics."

ISW analysts emphasized that the authorities did not prevent believers of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine from celebrating Christmas.

"Russian "bloggers" falsely presented the legal transfer of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra from the UOC MP, which has clear ties to the Kremlin and provides material and spiritual support to the Russian war in Ukraine, as an attack on the opportunity to celebrate Christmas," the message reads.

ISW notes that the Russian Orthodox Church continues to support Putin's aggressive policy.

And the dictator himself, in his Christmas speech, thanked the Russian Orthodox Church for the constant support of the Russian troops in Ukraine.

Experts remind that the Kremlin is trying to position Russia as a defender of Orthodox values.

We will remind you that on Christmas Day according to the Julian calendar, on January 7, in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, for the first time in 338 years, a service in the Ukrainian language was played.

The service in the Lavra was performed for the first time by the head of the OCU, Metropolitan Epiphany.

On December 31, 2022, the UOC MP held its last service in the Upper Lavra

.

 Already on January 1, 2023, the UOC MP was no longer allowed on the territory of the Dormition and Tabernacle Cathedrals.

On the Internet, memes ridiculed the vicar of the UOC MP monastery in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel, known as "Pasha Mercedes", who was not allowed to enter the monastery.

Bishop Pavlo himself traditionally cursed journalists for himself under the walls of the Lavra at Christmas.

Read also:

  • "The date is not important, it is not a dogma": Epiphany told when Ukraine will celebrate Christmas and Intercession

  • The Minister of Culture denied the words of representatives of the UOC MP about the "forcible seizure of the Assumption Cathedral"

  • Spoiled the monument: the governor of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra immortalized himself on the walls of the Dormition Cathedral

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