In September 2024, a message spread on social networks that the Ukrainian priest did not perform the funeral service for the dead soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, since they were baptized in churches subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate. We found out whether this news is true.

A video of a priest getting into conflict with a crowd of people holding Ukrainian flags began circulating online on September 7. It was published in such Telegram channels as “Dmitry Nicotin"(383,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Ukraine.ru"(144,000) and Alex Parker Returns (113,000 views), as well as in X, Facebook And "VKontakte" The caption to the video says that its author captured a priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) who refuses to perform the funeral service for dead Ukrainian soldiers baptized in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of the Moscow Patriarchate. It is specified that the conflict occurred in Chernivtsi.

There are two main Orthodox churches in Ukraine: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which received autocephaly from the Orthodox Church of Constantinople. Moscow Patriarchate believes The OCU is schismatic and in 2018 even refused Eucharistic communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople. This meant that the priests of the UOC and the OCU could not serve together, and people baptized in the OCU could not receive communion in the churches of the UOC (and vice versa).

May 27, 2022 Council of the UOC stated on the complete independence and independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and removed the phrase “Moscow Patriarchate” from its name. However, in Ukraine, many still consider the UOC to be closely connected with Russia, and on August 20, 2024, the Verkhovna Rada passed the law on a ban on the activities of religious organizations associated with the Russian Orthodox Church. Soon the document was signed by the country's President Vladimir Zelensky. Supposedthat after the transition period the authorities will be able to close parishes that maintain relations with the Moscow Patriarchate.

The content of the viral video does not quite match the caption. A man standing in the crowd actually asks: “On what basis did you not let our two dead guys come here for the funeral service? Where is your conscience? However, in the priest’s answer there is not a word about the ecclesiastical jurisdiction to which the deceased belonged: “I’ll tell you why, so that you understand. Because I cannot serve with them. If you want chaplains or the OCU to officiate the funeral, then I... don’t ask me to bring them to the church.” At this moment, he points to a young man standing nearby in a khaki T-shirt. In combination with the caption to the video, this dialogue sounds strange: if the author of the video captured an OCU priest, then why can’t he “serve with the OCU”?

“Verified” studied the video using a facial recognition service PimEyes. Judging by the results of the analysis, the man in a khaki T-shirt is in fact a chaplain (military priest) of the OCU Vladimir Ridny (Pedko), and the man in priestly vestments is an archpriest of the UOC Ioann Lavryshyn.

On the left - o. Vladimir Ridny (Instagram screenshot), on the right - Fr. Ioann Lavryshyn (screenshot of the official site Cherkasy diocese of the UOC)

Fact checkers from the project "Gvara Media" installed, that the video was filmed not in Chernivtsi, but in the village of Irkliev, Cherkasy region. Lavrishin was the senior priest of the Trinity Cathedral located there. On June 2, 2023, residents of Irkliev and several neighboring villages voted for community transition from the UOC to the OCU, however, the clergy of the cathedral refused to leave the temple, not recognizing the decision made by the parishioners. In fact, the Trinity Cathedral came under the control of the OCU only on August 10, 2023 - Moscow Patriarchate called these events were a raider takeover.

At the same time, that is, more than a year ago, a viral video was shot - “Verified” discovered him on Ridny’s Instagram profile. On August 9, 2023, the chaplain published it along with the caption: “The priest of the UOC-MP refused to bring the coffin into the church for the funeral service to the relatives of the serviceman who gave his life defending Ukraine. He explained this simply: he did not want the chaplains of the OCU, who were shoulder to shoulder on the front line with the serviceman, to perform his funeral service with him. P.S. There is not a single priest from the UOC-MP among the chaplains on the front line.” The description of events in this explanation matches the dialogue in the video. In his next post on August 10, Ridny reported, that the first divine service of the OCU took place in the Trinity Cathedral in the village of Irkliev.

The earliest publication of the video, accompanied by an incorrect description of what was happening and discovered by “Verified”, was posted on September 7 at 11:10 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “Whisper from the front"(80,000 views). Previously “Checked” several times incriminated this resource in dissemination false information.

Thus, the video does not depict an OCU priest refusing to perform funeral services for Ukrainian military personnel baptized in UOC parishes, but a UOC priest refusing to perform the ceremony together with his “colleagues” from the OCU. Moreover, the video was filmed not in Chernivtsi in 2024, but in the Cherkasy region in 2023.

Cover photo: screenshot of a viral video