In October 2024, social networks distributed a video and photograph allegedly taken in one of the Ukrainian churches. We checked whether the prayer appearing in them is genuine.
According to the caption to the short video, it was made in the Holy Trinity Church in Kyiv, and the cost of such a prayer is 10 UAH. The text of the prayer contains the words “so as not to be taken to war” and “save our relatives from mobilization.” The video and photograph were distributed by such Telegram channels as “Two majors"(249,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Putin on Telegram» (181,000), Reverse Side of the Medal (151,000), Voblya (142,000) and "Ukraine.ru"(128,000).
“Verified” did not find any signs of dissemination of a message about an unusual prayer in authoritative Ukrainian-language sources. There is no information about her on the websites of Ukrainian churches.
Mentioned in the caption of a viral video Holy Trinity Church in Troyeshchyna in Kyiv really exists, but it does not belong to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (its parishioners called themselves the majority of believing Ukrainians), but the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was previously subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate. At the same time, at the top of the sheet with the prayer in the viral photo is the logo of the OCU, and not the UOC.
The pattern around the perimeter of the prayer, apparently, was taken from one of the stock sites where it is called “temple photo frame”. At the top of the dome template, the OCU logo was replaced.
The text of the prayer is written in Ukrainian, although temples The UOC is no less widespread than Church Slavonic. However, in the prayer books as on Ukrainian language and in Church Slavonic the letter “z” is printed in Cyrillic, and in the prayer from the viral posts it looks more like the Latin z.
The prayer mentions “soldiers who give their lives in vain,” but the public rhetoric of Kyiv churches regarding the dead soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is completely other. For example, in another prayer, posted on the official website of one of the Kyiv churches of the OCU, on the contrary, it is said that the soldiers “gave their lives in battle for the independence of the Ukrainian land, because they defended the Orthodox faith from enemies.”
According to TGStat, the first mentioned video (a little later appeared and a similar photo) on October 15 at 17:35 Moscow time posted by a pro-Russian Telegram channel Reverse Side of the Medal. He repeatedly featured in analyzes “Verified” as one of the sources of dissemination of misinformation.
Thus, there is no reliable evidence that in Ukrainian churches (both those belonging to the OCU and those belonging to the UOC) parishioners are offered to purchase prayers against mobilization, captured in viral photos and videos.
Cover photo: social networks
Read on topic:
- Is it true that in Vinnitsa the former UOC temple was converted into a nightclub?
- Is it true that in Chernivtsi the priest of the OCU refused to perform the funeral service for the dead Ukrainian soldiers baptized in the UOC?
- Is it true that in Lutsk the temple of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was turned into a laundry?
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