The New York Times published a report revealing that the Orthodox churches in Ukraine have become tools for espionage in the war there.
The newspaper said that Ukrainian officials have begun to crack down on a branch of the Russian Orthodox Church, which they describe as a subversive force carrying out the orders of the Kremlin.
She added that the abbot of an Orthodox church in eastern Ukraine was apparently on a religious mission, and when the war broke out he stayed beside his parishioners and visited a hospital to pray with the wounded soldiers.
But in reality, according to court records, the abbot, Andriy Pavlenko, was actively working to kill Ukrainian soldiers and activists, including a priest from a rival Orthodox church in his hometown, Severodonetsk.
Evidence presented during his appearance in a Ukrainian court stated that Pavlenko had written to a Russian officer in March that the priest of that church should be killed.
And that evidence showed that Pavlenko sent the Russian army lists of people to arrest as soon as the city was occupied.
Although Pavlenko was convicted in court last month as a spy, he was handed over to Russia in a prisoner exchange.
And this was not an isolated case, according to the "New York Times" report. Last November, the Ukrainian authorities arrested more than 30 clerics and nuns from one of the Ukrainian branches of the Russian Orthodox Church, on suspicion of them.
The pro-Russian church - one of the major Orthodox churches in the country - constitutes a "unique subversive threat", according to the description of the Ukrainian security services.
This church is one of the entities that have been infiltrated by priests, monks and nuns who helped Russia in its war on Ukraine, according to the New York Times report.
inspection campaigns
The newspaper pointed out that the authorities launched in recent days a series of operations to inspect churches and monasteries, and to issue decrees and enact laws restricting the activity of the pro-Russian church, which is called confusingly by the "Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had asked his country's parliament in December to ban any church subject to Russia.
The strict measures taken by Ukraine against the Orthodox Church sparked strong protests from the Church and the Russian government, which described it as an attack on religious freedom.
Zelensky - who is Jewish - says the campaign has nothing to do with religious freedoms, which they argue do not apply to acts of espionage, sedition, subversion or treason.
In early December, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church described the accusation of its pastors and priests of collaborating with Russia as "unproven and unfounded".
The newspaper pointed out that the pro-Russian church, which still represents millions of Ukrainians, insists that it has severed relations with the Russian ecclesiastical authority since the beginning of the war.
The New York Times continues in its report that evidence of churches being treated as tools to achieve Russian aims is common. Inspections revealed huge sums of money, flags of former Russian dependent countries in eastern Ukraine, and leaflets printed by the Russian army for distribution in the "occupied territories."