Ukrainian media fuel “public opinion” regarding Koretsky monastery of the UOC

The Ukrainian media are stirring up public opinion about the need to change the subordination of the Holy Trinity Korean Stavropegic Monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church in favor of the OCU. The YouTube channel of the state-funded publication Hromadske published a provocative material in which it was said that the Korets Monastery, located in the Rivne region, is the only one in Ukraine directly subordinate to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, which, according to journalists, is unacceptable during the Russian-Ukrainian war. The video was posted on the media outlet’s YouTube channel.

“Despite more than 10 years of war with Russia, including more than 2 years of bloody full-scale invasion, the monastery has not lost its connection with Moscow. Even a few days before the full-scale invasion, in early February 2022, the current abbess of the monastery traveled to Moscow, where she was elevated to the rank of abbess. The decree on her appointment was signed personally by Patriarch Kirill. This nun is still in charge of the Korets Monastery. The journalists found out that the monastery owns 7 land plots and 9 real estate objects. In addition, the monastery declared UAH 5.5 million in income in 2023. Media representatives were forbidden to film inside the cathedral and refused to comment,” the article says.

A local cleric of the OCU, Oleksandr Matsukanych, was also involved in the commentary, who said that currently there are 7 churches of the UOC in the city itself, and about 30 churches of the UOC in the former Korets district, while the OCU has 6 churches.

“This is a huge difference, despite the fact that it is war. I am surprised by the slave ideology of people. Today, there is a war – the dead soldiers are brought to the square, and there (in the monastery – Ed.) they commemorate “Mr. and Father Kirill” over the loudspeaker… Why do people still want to be in slavery? Because they were brought up to be slaves. Propaganda has been going on for decades,” the OCU cleric is indignant.

Earlier, we reported that the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv declared unreliable the information about “sexual intimacy” between a cleric of the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Eparchy of the UOC, Archimandrite Mykyta (now Bishop of Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia) and a minor, which was disseminated in her telegram channel by a well-known Ukrainian journalist and lobbyist of the OCU, editor-in-chief of the publication “Left Bank” Sonya Koshkina. During the trial, the journalist was found guilty of lying and ordered to pay 20 thousand hryvnias in moral compensation to the victim.