The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is carrying out searches on May 1 at Metropolitan Luka (Andrii Kovalenko) of the Moscow-linked Ukrainian church, a source in law enforcement agencies confirmed for the Kyiv Independent on May 1.
Kovalenko is the metropolitan bishop of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP).
The source did not specify the reasons behind the searches.
Chesno, a public transparency-focused Ukrainian NGO, accused Kovalenko of spreading pro-Russian propaganda and justifying Moscow's aggression against Ukraine.
In 2023, Kovalenko said that the Soviet persecution against the church in the era of Josef Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev was insignificant compared to "what is happening now in Ukraine," Chesno wrote.
Ukrainian authorities have stepped in against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate after widespread evidence of collusion of some of its members with Russian invading forces.
Other religious groups, such as the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) and other Christian and non-Christian organizations, operate freely in Ukraine, except for territories occupied by Russia, where they face heavy persecution.
Kovalenko also reportedly said in 2022 that Ukrainians deserved Russian strikes and shelling because they tolerated gay parades in Kyiv.
Ukrainian authorities sanctioned Kovalenko and six other members of the UOC-MP in December 2022.
Read also: Faith under fire: Russia’s war on religion in Ukraine’s occupied territories
