Disinfo: Zelenskyy is trying to eradicate the Orthodox church in Ukraine

Summary

The Nazi regime intends to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, to carry out a complete "confiscation" of all churches, monasteries, temples and other property by the end of 2023. Zelenskyy has actually announced something similar to the Bolshevik's “godless five-year plan”, with the goal to eradicate Orthodoxy in Ukraine.

Disproof

No evidence provided. This is a pro-Kremlin conspiracy theory aiming at portraying Ukraine as "Satanist", in line with the recurring disinformation narrative that Ukraine is "Nazi".

In early December 2022, the Ukrainian government announced that it will draw up a law banning churches affiliated with Russia, following a series of raids on parishes that Kyiv says could be taking orders from Moscow.

The Ukrainian government does not plan to ban Orthodoxy. It plans to limit the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate [UOC-MP] in Ukraine, which is affiliated with Russia. The parishes are free to switch to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which received tomos of autocephaly in January 2019. It is also the most popular Orthodox church in Ukraine: 78% of orthodox believers claim their allegiance to the church.

Spravdi, the Centre for Strategic Communications under the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, has explained why the government decided to ban the activities of UOC-MP.

Spravdi found that in the churches of the UOC-MP, Russian propaganda is being spread; activities of enemy secret services are being covered and that Russian agents are being recruited.

Read more disinformation cases on the topic: Kyiv wants to exchange its Satanists for Orthodox priests; Borrell's remarks on Russian patriarch give Kyiv 'sanction' to persecute canonical church; the West wants to destroy Eastern Christianity through the war in Ukraine.

The Russian Patriarch in Moscow has voiced his full support for the Russian war on Ukraine incl. siding close with Putin, blessing soldiers and Russian guns and offering the church's support.

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asd.news (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 321
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 12/12/2022
  • Article language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine
  • Keywords: Orthodox Church, Ukraine
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Pro-Kremlin narrative that Moldova's pro-European leadership will draw Moldova into Russia's war with Ukraine, opening a "second front" in the Transnistrian region, on the orders of "external curators".

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Disinfo: European plan to get rid of Russian gas dependency is madness

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Disproof

This message is a part of a popular pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative, claiming that the energy crisis in Europe is caused by an “irrational” European plan to get rid of its dependency on Russian gas. This narrative promotes a traditional pro-Kremlin message that Russia is the only reliable source of gas for Europe, while the American LNG is too expensive.

During recent decades, Russia has used its energy resources on multiple occasions as a weapon against other countries, attempting to coerce them into following a pro-Kremlin line.

Disinfo: Holodomor famine was largely caused by the West

The main cause of the Holodomor was large-scale crop failure. To a large extent, the famine was also promoted by Western countries, which demanded that the USSR pay with grain in foreign trade operations with them.

Dec 11, 2022
Disproof

This is an example of gross historical revisionism and a recurring pro Kremlin disinformation narrative about Holodomor, claiming that there was no deliberately caused famine in Ukraine.

The Holodomor was an man-made famine deliberately caused by Stalin with the aim of remove a perceived Ukrainian threat to the Soviet regime. The Soviet state took away livestock, crops and seeds from the peasants under the guise that they "plundered" state property. The Soviet law on the seizure of food from peasants was adopted in 1932 and is known as the "Five Spikelet Law". Anyone who gathered several ears of wheat on the collective farm field was a culprit of "theft of state property". The punishment for theft of kolkhoz or cooperative property was the death sentence. This law was personally attributed to Joseph Stalin. The famine of 1932-1933 claimed the lives of 7 to 10 million citizens of the Soviet Union; the disaster affected in large parts but not only Ukraine but also parts of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Russia.