In September 2024, reports circulated on the RuNet that in a city in western Ukraine, a church building seized from the UOC had been converted into a laundry room. We have verified the veracity of this story.

The viral photo that serves as proof of the claim shows a bell tower with the entrance decorated with garlands of blue and white balloons. Above the door you can also see a banner with the Ukrainian-language inscription “Laundry “Clean…”.” In the Telegram channel of a Russian TV presenter Olesya Loseva (more than 15,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) the photograph was commented on as follows: “In Lutsk, the Orthodox church, taken from the UOC, was converted into a laundry. The dancing of the freaks continues.”

According to the TGStat service, at the time of writing this analysis, about 120 similar posts had appeared on Telegram, with a total of approximately 560,000 views. Similar posts were published by the channels “Petya the First"(81,000 views), "Infantryman"(45,000), Nina Vatt (40,000), "Actually in Kharkov"(39,000), "Sunshine" (34,000), "Ivan Okhlobystin"(29,000), "Actually in Kherson"(26,000), etc. Dozens of similar publications are posted in "VKontakte", where is one of the posts dialed over 40,000 views. Reports about the location of a laundry in the UOC church also meet on news websites and in social networks X.

Photo: screenshots of posts from the TGStat service

There are two main Orthodox churches in Ukraine: autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) and Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). Although the last one is in May 2022 stated on its independence from the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), August 20, 2024 Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine accepted a law banning the activities of religious organizations associated with the Russian Orthodox Church, and four days later the law signed President of the country Vladimir Zelensky. Despite the fact that the text does not formally speak of a ban on the activities of the UOC, in Ukraine many called his law banning the “Moscow Church”. According to experts, the implementation of this decision by the Ukrainian authorities (after the envisaged “transition period”) may drag on for years due to litigation.

Fact checkers from Ukrainian projects drew attention to posts about the transformation of the UOC building into a laundry StopFake And "Gvara Media" Using reverse image search, they discovered original photo, which is different from the viral photo. It turned out that in the image distributed in Telegram channels, the word “social” was erased from the inscription on the banner and several balloons were added.

On the left is the original photo, on the right is the viral one. Photo: social networks / Terebovlyanska city is happy / collage “Checked”

The original photo was published on Facebook* on the Terebovlya City Council page at the end of 2023. That publication reported that on November 17, in the belfry of the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit city of Terebovlya In the Ternopil region, with the support of the Caritas-Ternopil charitable foundation, a social laundry service “Chisto-ta” was opened. According to a press release, the parishioners studied the needs of the community and concluded that there was a lack of laundry facilities in the area, which for free Single pensioners and other vulnerable categories of the population will be able to benefit. At the same time, the TV channel “Suspilne Ternopil” published reportage, where the laundry was shown from the inside. Priest Ivan Yavorsky explained to reporters that the belfry will continue to fulfill its function, and one of the utility rooms has been allocated for those in need.

In addition, the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit is not Orthodox, but Greek Catholic. The parish in the city of Terebovlya was founded back in 2001, and the construction of the temple and bell tower took place, according to official documents, in 2010–2011.

The earliest appearance of a fake “Verified” photo was discovered in the Telegram channel “Sheikh Tamir"(41,000 views), where the picture was published on September 6, 2024 at 14:05 Moscow time and deleted at 16:12. At 14:06 and 14:07 the same publications appeared in the channels Zanoza (13,000 views) and "Shaman Rahu"(5600). All these three resource repeatedly were mentioned in “Verified” analyzes and often appeared as the primary sources of the spread of fakes. Moreover, in November 2023, “Sheikh Tamir” will already published similar misinformation. Then a video appeared that allegedly showed the celebration of Halloween in one of the OCU churches in Lutsk. In fact the video was removed long before this holiday in the Greek Catholic Church in Lviv, and the creators of the fake changed the sound track.

Thus, in September 2024, the building of the UOC temple in Lutsk was not taken away and turned into a laundry. In fact, the viral photo that was edited was taken in November 2023. The photo shows a social laundry opened in the bell tower of the Greek Catholic Church in Terebovlya.

*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Facebook, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Cover photo: social networks