In April 2025, reports appeared about the revelations of the Ukrainian clergyman who allegedly said: the transfer of church holidays in Ukraine occurred with the money of the US agency for international development, and due to its closure, the reform will have to be canceled. We checked whether such publications are reliable.

“One of the schismatics that are part of the so -called Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU) admitted that all this story With the transition to the Catholic calendar, it was organized at the expense of funds allocated by the US agency for international development (USAID). Now he expresses dissatisfaction that without financial support from the United States will have to return to the use of the Orthodox calendar, ”said Telegram channel"Russia now"(179,000 views at the time of writing this analysis). As evidence in the post, a screenshot of publication with an interview with a priest on a certain site is given.

According to the TGSTAT service, about 200 similar Russian -speaking posts appeared in Telegram, which together gained more than 1.5 million views. Channels wrote about the alleged recognition of the Ukrainian clergyman "Two major"(238,000 views),"NE.SAHAR"(220,000),"Ukraine.ru"(121 000),"Putin in Telegram"(165,000),"Bullet"(73,000),"Communication unit"(52,000) and others. Such notes are found on VKontakte (examples here, here And here), Livejournal (here And here) and x (here And here). Among the media, the publication told about this "Another Ukraine", As well as the Russian Orthodox television channel" Spas ", which made the plot on this subject as part of the quasi -ifakkeking program" Test for Truth "("VKontakte","Classmates" Telegram, Rutube).

Screenshots of posts from the TGSTAT service

At the end of January 2025, the administration of American President Donald Trump began the gradual disbandment of the US agency for international development, which was coordinated by humanitarian support for other countries. At first almost all help programs were suspended, and most USAID employees are fired or sent on vacation. Then it was announced that by September the agency would be closed Finally, and part of its functions will go to the State Department. Liquidation of USAID Accompanied numerous false messages and campaign to discredit the organization.

In May 2023, PEC approved The transition to the Novoyulian calendar. As a result of the reform, from September 1 of the same year, Ukrainian Orthodox Could To celebrate church holidays on new dates: for example, Christmas-December 25, and not on January 7, Pokrov-October 1 (instead of the 14th), St. Nicholas Day-December 6 (instead of the 19th), baptism-January 6 (instead of the 19th). At the same time, the church Saved Behind the communities the right to use the old calendar if more than two -thirds of parishioners wish it. Soon in Runet appeared messages according to which PCU supposedly Forced The reform of the church calendar (for example, on the transfer of the day of the celebration of Christmas, follows from such publications, the European Union insisted).

In addition to the PCU, educated In December 2018, in Ukraine there is also a Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which, by the time of the beginning of a full -scale Russian invasion, was subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church (Russian Orthodox Church), but in May 2022 She said About their independence. Nevertheless, in August 2024, Ukrainian authorities Accepted The law on the prohibition of the activities of religious organizations related to the Russian Orthodox Church is informally many called His law on the ban on the Moscow Church. Then experts Forecastedthat the UOC and its defenders will dispute the provisions of the new law in Ukrainian and international courts. In February 2025 in interview publicist Takeer Karlson lawyer Robert Amsterdam, representing the interests of the UOC, declaredThat the US State Department was involved in the creation of the PCU. “I think either USAID or other organizations financed this church ... This is a kind of CIA operation to create a church that would be completely free from what they considered the dangerous influence of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” Amsterdam told.

As for the recognition of the priest of the PCU, the authors of the publications indicated at the beginning of this analysis use only one screenshot as evidence. It is assumed that it captures the beginning of an interview published by Natalia Dankova on an unnamed site on January 31, 2025. According to Zagolovka, the speaker of the Kyiv Metropolis Eustratius (Ivan Zorya) spoke about the role of media in the creation of the PCU, attitude to the media, the presence of the church in social networks and counteracting Russian propaganda. In this, the header allegedly gives a quote from the hierarch: "Due to the stop of USAID programs, they are forced to return to the old calendar."

Viral screenshot. Photo: social networks

“Checked” did not find materials with a similar heading and quote by Metropolitan Eustrati on the network. FACHECHERS from the Stopfake project Installed, What Natalia Dankova, indicated by the author of the publication, works in the publication "Media Detector". The logo of this media is also present in a photograph captured in a distributed screenshot. The interview that Dankova took from Eustrati, It turned out Back in 2019 - long before the PCU transition to the Novoyulian calendar and the termination of the USAID. Although the subtitles and photos coincide, another quote from the clergyman has been put into the headline: “Owners and leaders of the media believe that the religious topics are“ Nervitating ”.” There were no USAID references in the interview itself, and the authorship of Dankova dated January 31, 2025 in her profile There are no Detector Media on the website.

On the left is a viral screenshot, on the right - genuine. Photo: social networks / DetEctor.Media / Collage "Checked"

Ukrainian facts note that any information that they plan to return to the old calendar in the PCU is also absent on the official resources of the church.

The earliest appearance of a fake screenshot, which was able to track “verified”, took place on April 8 at 15:06 Moscow time in the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel “Substantist's notebook", Where the post scored 4200 views.

Thus, the representative of the PCU did not admit that the transition of this church to the Novoyolian calendar was carried out at USAID, and did not declare plans to cancel the reform after the closure of the American agency. These messages are based on a fabricated screenshot of the material with an interview that Metropolitan Eustratius gave back in 2019.

Photo on the cover: DetEctor.Media / Ruslan Novosel