Ukraine’s Security Service finds ‘content denying Ukraine’s existence’ during search in monasteries

The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police have found a large amount of “anti-Ukrainian content” during searches on the territory of the Pochaev Theological Seminary and the Ivano-Frankivsk Eparchy of the UOC (Moscow Patriarchate), the Security Service reports on Telegram.

“The Security Service has found literature that denies the existence of the Ukrainian people, their language, as well as the very right of Ukraine to statehood, and, on the contrary, claims that Ukraine is an artificially created state,” the agency said in a statement.

Also, “brochures and books of xenophobic and hateful content with offensive fabrications about other ethnicities and religions” were found. Most of the literature was published under the authorship of Russian people in Russian printing houses, according to the Security Service.

The agency is going to study further into where the symbols of the “Great Don Army”, found in one of the back rooms of the Ivano-Frankivsk diocese, got into Ukraine from. In particular, the agency has found patches of “an illegal armed formation that helped the Russians occupy parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014.”

The report of the security service notes that all evidence became the basis for opening criminal cases on violation of the equality of citizens due to their race, nationality or regional affiliation.

Ukraine’s Security Service reported conducting a search at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a monastery founded in the 11th century and located in the heart of the country’s capital. The search was explained by “the growing terrorism threat, as well as potential sabotage and hostage situations.” The campaign continued later that day when the agency searched two more monasteries in the Rivne region, and a temple in the Ivano-Frankivsk region on Sunday.