In July 2024, reports appeared in social networks and the media that the Ukrainian clergyman asked his flock to put candles for the mock of the soul of a US presidential candidate, since he "succumbed to the temptation of evil." We checked the reality of this story.
Publications on such an appeal to the priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU) appeared in Runet on July 19. For example, Telegram channel "Ukraine.ru”(315,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) said:“ The Ukrainian “Priest” from the schismatic “Church” called for the flock to put candles behind Donald Trump. According to him, the potential president of the United States “has entered into an agreement with evil” and there is no other way to help Trump realize his mistake (apparently, we are talking about the refusal to support Ukraine without any conditions) other than the “court of the court”. Of course, the flock of a satanist from PCU joyfully ran to do what he proposed. If that, according to the Orthodox canons, putting a candle for a repose of a living person out of evil motives is a grave sin, so we do not envy the setting. ” Several screenshots from Instagram were given as evidence in the post. July 21 "Ukraine.ru" Repeated Publication with similar text (114,000 views). The next day in the channel of the TV presenter Ruslan Ostashko (103,000 views) added that the priest is the name of Nazarii, and brought his alleged quote: “His (Trump) reluctance to help in the righteous struggle with the forces of evil Ukraine, to help us, Ukrainians, speaks of a demonic evil living in the heart of this vicious person.”
In total, according to TGSTAT, about 170 similar posts appeared in Telegram at the time of writing this analysis, which had scored over 1.6 million views. For example, channels wrote about the call of a priest PCU "Uncle Glory"(178,000 views), Voblya (134,000) and "TV Center | TVC"(34,000). Similar publications are found on VKontakte (examples here, here And here), social networks X (here, here And here) and "Zen", where about this wrote TV presenter Yuri Kot, as well as on newspaper sites "Arguments and facts","Union of Orthodox journalists"(St. Petersburg)," "Podolyaka","Politanalics" And Newsland.
None of the publications mentioned above are given links to the Instagram account of Father Nazarii (according to the photo of the profile, he is from the city of Glukhov), nor his original publications. Of the evidence, there are only four screenshots, and two of them demonstrate the same post about Trump, which allegedly scored 6742 likes and received 92 comments. The text of the publication from the user with the userneum @otec_nazarij reads:
“I urge all parishioners of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to come to the temples to put candles for the rest of the lost soul @realdonaldtrump, which succumbed to the temptation of evil and entered into a conspiracy with evil. There is no other way, except for the judgment of the Lord, to exhort Him and lead to an understanding of the great evil that he created during his lifetime, entering into a conspiracy with the governor of the enemy of the Lord and the Human. His unwillingness to help in the righteous struggle with the forces of evil Ukraine, to help us, Ukrainians, speaks of a demonic evil living in the heart of this vicious person. "
Two other images are the screenshots of the story from @otec_nazarij, which allegedly reputed the publication of two other users. So, @ma_elena94ua published a photo from the church and wrote: "They came with mom to put candles for the repose of Trump." “A candle for the Mother of Trump (it's good that at home: p) rip @realdonaldtrump (rest with the world, Donald Trump. - Approx. Ed.), - reads the post from @ua.trepelez_l.
At the time of writing this analysis profile @otec_nazarij On Instagram is unavailable and “verified” cannot reliably confirm that such publications existed on this page. “Perhaps you took advantage of the invalid link or the page was deleted,” the platform reports. It was not possible to find the softened copies of the profile. The same applies to users @ma_lena94ua And @ua.trepelez_l.
The factor from the Stopfake project managed to study all three pages when they still functioned. Our colleagues Reportthat the account of Father Nazaria and the pages of both of his parishioners captured on the screenshots were privately, that is, only subscribers could look at publications. At the same time, they had a suspiciously large number of readers, writes Stopfake, suggesting that these were bots. Moreover, each of the profiles changed its user's name from three to six times. It is likely that now they are inaccessible due to the next change in the userneum.
In addition, one of the photographs allegedly from the subscriber of Father Nazarii “tested” was found on site Stock pictures istockphoto.com. According to the description, the image appeared on the platform back in 2020. A picture of a girl in an unnamed Orthodox Church in Romania was made by the photographer Rada Bigian.
In the city of Glukhov Sumy region, Capellan and Volunteer Nazariy Kovalev actually lives. On him Facebook page The instagram profile is also indicated- @nazariikovalovwhere there are no calls to put candles for the repose of the ex-president of the United States. Moreover, on July 20 in his accounts in both social networks The priest called such messages about Trump Fake and called on law enforcement agencies to "take measures to neutralize Russian agents in the information space of Ukraine."
Dear brothers and sisters! I, Kovalev Nazariy Viktorovich, are the deanery of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the city of Glukhov.
<...>
He repeatedly experienced pressure on his activities because of the defense of the positions of the Ukrainian church both from the authorities in Glukhov and the Russian agent-the Moscow Church. Today I became aware that, hiding behind my name, they created an Instagram account, where I supposedly urge you to put the Trump candles for the repose - this is a lie! I consider such intentional actions of the enemies of Ukraine, directed against Ukraine, the Ukrainian church and me personally. Therefore, be careful and visit exclusively the official pages that are indicated below.
<...>
Other pages and accounts are considered fraudulent and fake.
July 22 Kovalev He called Leave his subscribers to complaints about the fake page on Instagram and attached an additional screenshot of the @otec_nazarij profile. According to the image, the fake father Nazari had almost 3200 subscribers.
The earliest publication with the false screenshots that managed to find “verified” appeared on July 19 at 16:05 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “Sheikh Tamir"(130,000 views). Our regular readers are already familiar with this channel, because it mentioned In more than 160 disinformation analysis posted on the site, and many times became the primary source of fakes.
Thus, the Ukrainian clergyman did not urge his parishioners to put candles behind the rest of the living Trump. Unknowns created a fake instagram profile of a real chaplain, which denied its involvement in viral screenshots on its genuine pages in social networks.
Photo on the cover: social networks / Radu Bighian (Istock)
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